
flass "PS 2 c 
Book 



Copyright N?. 



OW 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 




Clad in doublet and hose, and book of Cordovan leather. 
Strode, with a martial air, Miles Standish the Puritan Captain. 



Courtship of 
Miles Standisn 




Henry W. Longfellow 



^imtdjafja d^Dttton 



CHICAGO 
THOMPSON & THOMAS 



*3 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

DEC 26 1905 

Copy riff ht Entry 
CLASS O- XXc No. 

/ 3 s~o °r I 

COPY B. 



Copyright, 1905. 
By S. C. Andrews. 



vS 






>v5 




THE 



COURTSHIP OF MILES STANDISH 



I. 

MILES STANDISH. 
V_ 

N the Old Colony 
days, in Plym- 
outh the land of 
the Pilgrims, 
To and fro in a room of his simple and primi- 
tive dwelling, 
Clad in doublet and hose, and boots of 

Cordovan leather, 
3 




4 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES ST AH DISH. 

Strode, with a martial air, Miles Standish 
the Puritan Captain. 

Buried in thought he seemed, with his hands 

behind him, and pausing 5 

Ever and anon to behold his glittering weap- 
ons of warfare, 

Hanging in shining array along the walls 
of the chamber, — 

Cutlass and corslet of steel, and his trusty 
sword of Damascus, 

Curved at the point and inscribed with its 
mystical Arabic sentence, 

While underneath, in a corner, were fowling- 
piece, musket, and matchlock. 10 

Short of stature he was, but strongly built 
and athletic, 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 5 

Broad in the shoulders, deep-chested, with 

muscles and sinews of iron; 
Brown as a nut was his face, but his russet 

beard was already 
Flaked with patches of snow, as hedges 

sometimes in November. 
Near him was seated John Alden, his friend, 

and household companion, 15 

Writing with diligent speed at a table of pine 

by the window; 
Fair-haired, azure-eyed, with delicate Saxon 

complexion, 
Having the dew of his youth, and the beauty 

thereof, as the captives 
Whom Saint Gregory saw, and exclaimed, 

"Not Angles but Angels." . 



6 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

Youngest of all was he of the men who came 

in the May Flower. 20 

Suddenly breaking the silence, the diligent 
scribe interrupting, 

Spake, in the pride of his heart, Miles Stan- 
dish the Captain of Plymouth. 

"Look at these arms," he said, "the warlike 
weapons that hang here 

Burnished and bright and clean, as if for pa- 
rade or inspection! 

This is the sword of Damascus I fought 

with in Flanders; this breastplate, 25 

Well I remember the day! once saved my 
life in a skirmish; 

Here in front you can see the very dint of 
the bullet 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 7 

Fired point-blank at my heart by a Spanish 

arcabucero. 
Had it not been of sheer steel, the forgotten 

bones of Miles Standish 
Would at this moment be mould, in their 

grave in the Flemish morasses. " 30 

Thereupon answered John Alden, but looked 

not up from his writing : 
"Truly the breath of the Lord hath slack- 
ened the speed of the bullet; 
He in his mercy preserved you, to be our 

shield and our weapon!" 
Still the Captain continued, unheeding the 

words of the stripling : 
"See, how bright they are burnished, as if 

in an arsenal hanging; 35 



g THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

That is because I have done it myself, and 

not left it to others. 
Serve yourself, would you be well served, 

is an excellent adage; 
So I take care of my arms, as you of your 

pens and your inkhorn. 
Then, too, there are my soldiers, my great, 

invincible army, 
Twelve men, all equipped, having each his 

rest and his matchlock, 40 

Eighteen shillings a month, together with 

diet and pillage, 
And, like Caesar, I know the name of each 

of my soldiers!" 
This he said with a smile, that danced in 

his eyes, as the sunbeams 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STANDISH. 9 

Dance on the waves of the sea, and vanish 

again in a moment. 
Alden laughed as he wrote, and still the Cap- 
tain continued : 45 
"Look! you can see from this window my 

brazen howitzer planted 
High on the roof of the church, a preacher 

who speaks to the purpose, 
Steady, straight-forward, and strong, with 

irresistible logic, 
Orthodox, flashing conviction right into the 

hearts of the heathen. 
Now we are ready, I think, for any assault 

of the Indians ; 50 



10 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

Let them come, if 
they like, and the 
sooner they try it 
the better, — 
Let them come, if 
they like, be it 
sagamore, sachem 
or pow-wow, 
Aspinet, Samoset, 
Corbitant, Squanto, or Tokamaha- 
mon !" 




Long at the window he stood, and wist- 
fully gazed on the landscape, 
Washed with a cold gray mist, the vapory 

breath of the east-wind, 55 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAhlDISH. 11 

Forest and meadow and hill, and the steel- 
blue rim of the ocean, 

Lying silent and sad, in the afternoon shad- 
ows and sunshine. 

Over his countenance flitted a shadow like 
those on the landscape, 

Gloom intermingled with light ; and his voice 
was subdued with emotion, 

Tenderness, pity, regret, as after a pause he 
proceeded : 

"Yonder there, on the hill by the sea, lies 

buried Rose Standish; 60 

Beautiful rose of love, that bloomed for me 
by the wayside! 

She was the first to die of all who came in 
the May Flower ! 



12 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

Green above her is growing the field of wheat 

we have sown there, 
Better to hide from the Indian scouts the 

graves of our people, 

Lest they should count them and see how 

many already have perished !" 65 

Sadly his face he averted, and strode up and 
down, and was thoughtful. 

Fixed to the opposite wall was a shelf of 
books, and among them. 

Prominent three, distinguished alike for bulk 
and for binding; 

Bariffe's Artillery Guide, and the Commen- 
taries of Caesar, 

Out of the Latin translated by Arthur Gold- 

ing of London, 7° 




Musing a moment before them, Miles Standish paused, as if doubtful 
Which°of the three he should choose for his consolation and comfort. 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES ST AN DISH. 13 

And, as if guarded by these, between them 
was standing the Bible. 

Musing a moment before them, Miles Stan- 
dish paused, as if doubtful 

Which of the three he should choose for his 
consolation and comfort, 

Whether the wars of the Hebrews, the fa- 
mous campaigns of the Romans, 

Or the Artillery practice, designed for bel- 
ligerent Christians. 75 

Finally down from its shelf he dragged the 
ponderous Roman, 

Seated himself at the window, and opened 
the book, and in silence 

Turned o'er the well-worn leaves, where 
thumbmarks thick on the margin, 



14 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

Like the trample of feet, proclaimed the bat- 
tle was hottest. 
Nothing was heard in the room but the hur- 
rying pen of the stripling, 80 
Busily writing epistles important, to go by 
the May Flower, 

Ready to sail on the 
morrow, or next 
day at latest, God 
willing! 
Homeward bound with the tidings of all that 

terrible winter, 
Letters written by Alden, and full of the 

name of Priscilla, 
Full of the name and the fame of the Puri- 
tan maiden Priscilla ! 85 




II. 



LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP. 




OTHING was heard 
in the room but 



the hurrying pen of 
the stripling, 
Or an occasional sigh 
from the laboring heart of the Cap- 
tain, 
Reading- the marvelous words and achieve- 
ments of Julius Caesar. 

After a while he exclaimed, as he smote with 

his hand, palm downwards, 

Heavily on the page: "A wonderful man 

was this Caesar ! 

15 



16 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

You are a writer, and I am a tighter, but here 

is a fellow 
Who could both write and fight, and in both 

was equally skilful !" 
Straightway answered and spake John Al- 

den, the comely, the youthful : 
"Yes, he was equally skilled, as you say, with 

his pen and his weapons. 
Somewhere have I read, but where I forget, 

he could dictate 10 

Seven letters at once, at the same time writ- 
ing his memoirs." 
"Truly," continued the Captain, not heeding 

or hearing the other, 
"Truly a wonderful man was Caius Julius 

Csesar ! 




■-'■-::ilti ! JiiiJ'il'ijii,i:'nm,~^^ | yj f )ukJl.<.^;n-ii 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 17 

Better be first, he said, in a little Iberian 

village, 
Than be second in Rome, and I think he was 

right when he said it. 15 

Twice was he married before he was twenty, 

and many times after; 
Battles five hundred he fought, and a thou- 
sand cities he conquered ; 
He, too, fought in Flanders, as he himself 

has recorded ; 
Finally he was stabbed by his friend, the 

orator Brutus ! 
Now, do you knew what lie did on a certain 

occasion in Flanders, 20 

When the rear-guard of his army retreated, 

the front giving way too, 



18 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

And the immortal Twelfth Legion was 

crowded so closely together 
There was no room for their swords ? Why, 

he seized a shield from a soldier, 
Put himself straight at the head of his troops, 

and commanded the captains, 
Calling on each by his name, to order for- 
ward the ensigns ; 25 
Then to widen the ranks, and give more room 

for their weapons ; 
So he won the day, the battle of something- 

or-other. 
That's what I always say; if you wish a 

thing to be well done, 
You must do it yourself, you must not leave 

it to others!" 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES ST4NDISH. 19 

All was silent again; the Captain contin- 
ued his reading. 30 

Nothing was heard in the room but the 
hurrying pen of the stripling 

Writing epistles important to go next day by 
the May Flower, 

Filled with the name and the fame of the 
Puritan maiden Priscilla; 

Every sentence began or closed with the name 
of Priscilla, 

Till the treacherous pen, to which he con- 
fided the secret, 35 

Strove to betray it by singing and shouting 
the name of Priscilla ! 

Finally closing his book, with a bang of the 
ponderous cover, 



20 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

Sudden and loud as the sound of a soldier 
grounding his musket, 

Thus to the young man spake Miles Stan- 
dish the Captain of Plymouth : 

"When you have finished your work, I have 

something important to tell you. 40 




THE COURTSHIP OF MILES ST AN DISH. 21 

Be not however in haste; I can wait; I shall 
not be impatient!" 

Straightway Alden replied, as he folded the 
last of his letters, 

Pushing his papers aside, and giving respect- 
ful attention : 

"Speak ; for whenever you speak, I am al- 
ways ready to listen, 

Always ready to hear whatever pertains to 

Miles Standish." 45 

Thereupon answered the Captain, embar- 
rassed, and culling his phrases : 

" 'Tis not good for a man to be alone, say 
the Scriptures. 

This I have said before, and again and again 
I repeat it; 



22 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES ST AN DISH. 

Every hour in the day, I think it, and feel it, 

and say it. 
Since Rose Standish died, my life has been 

weary and dreary : 50 

Sick at heart have I been, beyond the healing 

of friendship. 
Oft in my lonely hours have I thought of the 

maiden Priscilla. 
She is alone in the world; her father and 

mother and brother 
Died in the winter together ; I saw her going 

and coming, 
Now to the grave of the dead, and now to the 

bed of the dying, 55 

Patient, courageous, and strong, and said to 

myself, that if ever 






ftr^ 




Till the treacherous pen, to which he confided the secret, 
Seemed to betray it by singing and shouting the name 
of Priseiila! 




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THE COURTSHIP OF MILES ST4NDISH. 23 

There were angels on earth, as there are 

angels in heaven, 
Two have I seen and known; and the angel 

whose name is Priscilla 
Holds in my desolate life the place which 

the other abandoned. 
Long have I cherished the thought, but 

never have dared to reveal it, 60 

Being a coward in this, though valiant 

enough for the most part. 
Go to the damsel Priscilla, the loveliest 

maiden of Plymouth, 
Say that a blunt old Captain, a man not of 

words but of actions, 
Offers his hand and his heart, the hand and 

heart of a soldier. 



24 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

Not in these words, you know, but this in 

short is my meaning; 65 

I am a maker of war, and not a maker of 
phrases. 

You, who are bred as a scholar, can say it in 
elegant language, 

Such as you read in your books of the plead- 
ings and wooings of lovers, 

Such as you think best adapted to win the 
heart of a maiden." 

When he had spoken, John Alden, the fair- 
haired, taciturn stripling, 70 
All aghast at his words, surprised, embar- 
rassed, bewildered, 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES ST4NDISH. 



25 




Trying to mask his dismay 
by treating the subject 
with lightness, 

Trying to smile, and yet 
feeling his heart stand 



still in his bosom, 

Just as a timepiece stops in a house that is 
stricken by lightning, 

Thus made answer and spake, or rather stam- 
mered than answered : 

"Such a message as that, I am sure I should 
mangle and mar it; 

If you would have it well done, — I am only 
repeating your maxim, — 

You must do it yourself, you must not leave 
i* to others !" 



75 



26 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

But with the air of a man whom nothing can 

turn from his purpose, 
Gravely shaking his head, made answer the 

Captain of Plymouth : 80 

"Truly the maxim is good, and I do not mean 

to gainsay it ; 
But we must use it discreetly, and not waste 

powder for nothing. 
Now, as I said before, I was never a maker of 

phrases. 
I can march up to a fortress and summon the 

place to surrender, 
But march up to a woman with such a propo- 
sal, I dare not. 85 
I'm not afraid of bullets, nor shot from the 

mouth of a cannon, 




Then made answer John Alden: "The name of friendship is sacred; 
What vou demand in that name, I have not the power to deny you." 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 27 

But of a thundering "No!" point-blank from 

the mouth of a woman, 
That I confess I'm afraid of, nor am I 

ashamed to confess it ! 
So you must grant my request, for you are an 

elegant scholar, 
Having the graces of speech, and skill in the 

turning of phrases." 90 

Taking the hand of his friend, who still was 

reluctant and doubtful, 
Holding it long in his own, and pressing it 

kindly, he added : 
"Though I have spoken thus lightly, yet deep 

is the feeling that prompts me ; 
Surely you cannot refuse what I ask in the 

name of our friendship [" 



28 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

Then made answer John Alden : "The name 

of friendship is sacred ; 
What you demand in that name, I have not 

the power to deny you !" 
So the strong will prevailed, subduing and 

moulding the gentler, 
Friendship prevailed over love, and Alden 

went on his errand. 



95 





III. 



THE LOVER S ERRAND. 




O the strong will pre- 
vailed, and Alden went 
on his errand, 

Out of the street of the 
village, and into the paths of the 

forest, 
Into the tranquil woods, where blue-birds 

and robins were building 

Towns in the populous trees, with hanging 

gardens of verdure, ' 
29 



30 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 



Peaceful, aerial cities 
of joy and affection 
and freedom. 
\ All around him was 
calm, but within 
him commotion 
and conflict, 
If Love contending with 
friendship, and self 
with each generous 
impulse. 
To and fro in his breast his thoughts were 

heaving and dashing, 
As in a foundering ship, with every roll of the 
vessel, 




THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAHDISH. 31 

Washes the bitter sea, the merciless surge of 

the ocean! I0 

"Must I relinquish it all," he cried with a 

wild lamentation, 
"Must I relinquish it all, the joy, the hope, the 

illusion ? 
Was it for this I have loved and waited, and 

worshipped in silence ? 
Was it for this I have followed the flying feet 

and the shadow 
Over the wintry sea, to the desolate shores of 

New England? *5 

Truly the heart is deceitful, and out of its 

depths of corruption 
Rise, like an exhalation, the misty phantoms 
of passion , 



32 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES ST^NDISH. 

Angels of light they seem, but are only delu- - 
sions of Satan. 

All is clear to me now; I feel it, I see it dis- 
tinctly ! 

This is the hand of the Lord ; it is laid upon 

me in anger, 20 

For I have followed too much the heart's de- 
sires and devices, 

Worshipping Astaroth blindly, and impious 
idols of Baal. 

This is the cross I must bear ; the sin and the 
swift retribution." 

So through the Plymouth woods John Af- 
den went on his errand; 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 33 

Crossing the brook at the ford, where it 

brawled over pebble and shallow, 25 

Gathering still, as he went, the May-flowers 

blooming around him, 
Fragrant, filling the air with a strange and 

wonderful sweetness, 
Children lost in the woods, and covered with 

leaves in their slumber. 
"Puritan flowers," he said, "and the type of 

Puritan maidens, 
Modest and simple and sweet, the very type 

of Priscilla ! 30 

So I will take them to her; to Priscilla the 

May-flower of Plymouth, 




34 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STANDISH. 

^^ r ^ ;,r ~^ ^W:^sm r Modest and simple 

relit -■ \k$m 4 1 

H^s 7 m and sweet, as a 

parting gift will I 

take them; 

Breathing their silent farewells, as they fade 
and wither and perish, 

Soon to be thrown away as is the heart of the 
giver." 

So through the Plymouth woods John Alden 

went on his errand; 35 

Came to an open space, and saw the disk of 
the ocean, 

Sailless, sombre and cold with the comfort- 
less breath of the east-wind ; 

Saw the new-built house, and people at work 
in a meadow ; 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAhlDlSH. 35 

Heard, as he drew near the door, the musical 

voice of Priscilla 
Singing the hundredth Psalm, the grand old 

Puritan anthem, 4° 

Music that Luther sang to the sacred words 

of the Psalmist, 
Full of the breath of the Lord, consoling and 

comforting many. 
Then, as he opened the door, he beheld the 

form of the maiden 
Seated beside her wheel, and the carded wool 

like a snow-drift 
Piled at her knee, her white hands feeding 

the ravenous spindle, 45 

While with her foot on the treadle she guided 

the wheel in its motion. 



36 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

Open wide on her lap lay the well-worn 

psalm-book of Ainsworth , 
Printed in Amsterdam, the words and the 

music together, 
Rough-hewn, angular notes, like stones in the 

wall of a churchyard, 
Darkened and overhung by the running vine 

of the verses. 50 

Such was the book from whose pages she 

sang the old Puritan anthem, 
She, the Puritan girl, in the solitude of the 

forest, 
Making the humble house and the modest ap- 
parel of home-spun 
Beautiful with her beauty, and rich with the 

wealth of her being! 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 37 

Over him rushed, like a wind that is keen 

and cold and relentless, 55 

Thoughts of what might have been, and the 
weight and woe of his errand ; 

All the dreams that had faded, and all the 
hopes that had vanished, 

All his life henceforth a dreary and tenant- 
less mansion, 

Haunted by vain regrets, and pallid, sorrow- 
ful faces. 

Still he said to himself, and almost fiercely he 

said it, 60 

"Let not him that putteth his hand to the 
plough look backwards ; 

Though the ploughshare cut through the 
flowers of life to its fountains, 



38 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

Though it pass o'er the graves of the dead 
and the hearths of the living, 

It is the will of the Lord; and his mercy en- 
dureth for ever !" 



So he entered the 
house ; and the 
h u m o f the 
wheel and the 
singing 65 

Suddenly ceased ; for Priscilla, aroused by 

his step on the threshold, 
Rose as he entered, and gave him her hand, 

in signal of welcome, 
Saying, "I knew it was you, when I heard 
your step in the passage ; 




THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 39 

For I was thinking of you, as I sat there sing- 
ing and spinning." 

Awkward and dumb with delight, that a 

thought of him had been mingled 70 

Thus in the sacred psalm, that came from the 
heart of the maiden, 

Silent before her he stood, and gave her the 
flowers for an answer. 

Finding no words for his thought. He re- 
membered that day in the winter, 

After the first great snow, when he broke a 
path from the village, 

Reeling and plunging along through the 

drifts that encumbered the doorway, 75 

Stamping the snow from his feet as he en- 
tered the house, and Priscilla 



40 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

Laughed at his snowy locks, and gave him a 

seat by the fireside, 
Grateful and pleased to know he had thought 

of her in the snow-storm. 
Had he but spoken then ! perhaps not in vain 

had he spoken ; 
Now it was all too late ; the golden moment 

had vanished ! 80 

So he stood there abashed, and gave her the 

flowers for an answer. 




Then they sat down and talked of the birds 
and the beautiful Spring-time, 
Talked of their friends at home, and the May 
Flower that sailed on the morrow. 




]Slow it was all too late; the golden moment had vanished! 
Silent he stood there abashed, and gave her the flowers for an answer. 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 



41 



"I have been thinking all day," said gently 

the Puritan maiden, 
"Dreaming all night, and thinking all day, 

of the hedge-rows of England, — 85 




They are in blossom now, and the country is 
all like a garden; 



42 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH, 

Thinking of lanes and fields, and the song of 

the lark and the linnet, 
Seeing the village street, and familiar faces 

of neighbors 
Going about as of old, and stopping to gossip 

together, 
And, at the end of the street, the village 

church, with the ivy 90 

Climbing the old gray tower, and the quiet 

graves in the churchyard. 
Kind are the people I live with, and dear to 

me my religion; 
Still my heart is so sad, that I wish myself 

back in Old England. 
You will say it is wrong, but I cannot help it : 

I almost 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 43 

Wish myself back in Old England, I feel so 

lonely and wretched." 95 

Thereupon answered the youth : — "Indeed 

I do not condemn you ; 
Stouter hearts than a woman's have quailed 

in this terrible winter. 
Yours is tender and trusting, and needs a 

stronger to lean on ; 
So I have come to you now, with an offer and 

proffer of marriage 
Made by a good man and true, Miles Stand- 

ish the Captain of Plymouth !" 100 

Thus he delivered his message, the dexterous 
writer of letters, — 



44 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 



Did not embellish the theme, nor array it in 

beautiful phrases, 
But came straight to the point, and blurted it 

out like a schoolboy; 



•*%> 






m 



Wi ) 







D a f^e^-^jjl' ' 



Even the Captain himself could hardly have 
said it more bluntly. 




"Yours is tender and trusting, and needs a stronger 
to lean on; 
So I have come to you now, with an offer and proffer 
of marriage." 




"He was a gentleman born, could trace his pedigree plainly 
Back to Hugh Standish of Duxbury Hall, in Lancashire, England.' 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 45 

Mute with amazement and sorrow, Priscilla 

the Puritan maiden 105 

Looked into Alden's face, her eyes dilated 

with wonder, 
Feeling his words like a blow, that stunned 

her and rendered her speechless ; 
Till at length she exclaimed, interrupting the 

ominous silence : , 

"If the great Captain of Plymouth is so very 

eager to wed me, 
Why does he not come himself, and take the 

trouble to woo me? 
If I am not worth the wooing, I surely am 

not worth the winning!" 
Then John Alden began explaining and 

smoothing the matter, 



46 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

Making it worse as he went, by saying the 

Captain was busy, — 
Had no time for such things ; — such things ! 

the words grating harshly 
Fell on the ear of Priscilla; and swift as a~ 

flash she made answer: 115 

"Has he no time for such things, as you call 

it, before he is married, 
Would he be likely to find it, or make it, 

after the wedding? • 
That is the way with you men ; you don't un- 
derstand us, you cannot. 
When you have made up your minds, after 

thinking of this one and that one, 
Choosing, selecting, rejecting, comparing 

one with another, 120 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 47 

Then you make known your desire, with 

abrupt and sudden avowal, 
And are offended and hurt, and indignant 

perhaps, that a woman 
Does not respond at once to a love that she 

never suspected, 
Does not attain at a bound the height to 

which you have been climbing. 
This is not right nor just: for surely a 

woman's affection 125 

Is not a thing to be asked for, and had for 

only the asking. 
When one is truly in love, one not only says 

it, but shows it. 
Had he but waited awhile, had he only 
showed that he loved me, 



48 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAblDISH. 

Even this Captain of yours — who knows? — 

at last might have won me, 
Old and rough as he is; but now it never 

can happen." 130 



Still John Alden went on unheeding the 
words of Priscilla, 

Urging the suit of his friend, explaining, per- 
suading, expanding; 

Spoke of his courage and skill, and of all his 
battles in Flanders, 

How with the people of God he had chosen to 
suffer affliction, 

How, in return for his zeal, they had made 

him Captain of Plymouth; 135 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STANDISH. 49 

He was a gentleman born, could trace his ped- 
igree plainly 
Back to Hugh Standish of Duxbury Hall, in 

Lancashire, England, 
Who was the son of Ralph, and the grandson 

of Thurston de Standish ; 
Heir unto vast estates, of which he was base- 
ly defrauded, 
Still bore the family arms, and had for his 

crest a cock argent 140 

H "f Combed and wat- 

tled gules, and all 
the rest of the 
blazon. 
He was a man of 
honor, of noble and generous nature ; 




«fg 



50 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

Though he was rough, he was kindly; she 

knew how during the winter 
He had attended the sick, with a hand as gen- 
tle as woman's; 
Somewhat hasty and hot, he could not deny 

it, and headstrong, 145 

Stern as a soldier might be, but hearty, and 

placable always, 
Not to be laughed at and scorned, because he 

was little of stature; 
For he was great of heart, magnanimous, 

courtly, courageous ; 
Any woman in Plymouth, nay, any woman 

in England, 
Might be happy and proud to be called the 

wife of Miles Standish ! 1 50 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STANDISH. 



51 



But as he warmed and glowed, in his sim- 
ple and eloquent language, 

Quite forgetful of self, and full of the praise 
of his rival, 

Archly the maiden smiled, and, with- eyes 
over-running with laughter, 

Said, in a tremulous voice, "Why don't you 
speak for yourself, John?" 






IV. 

JOHN ALDEN. 

NTO the open air 
John Alden, per- 
plexed and be- 
wildered, 
Rushed like a man insane, and wandered 

alone by the sea-side; 
Paced up and down the sands, and bared his 

head to the east-wind, 
Cooling his heated brow, and the fire and 

fever within him. 
52 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 



53 




VmixJ- * 



Slowly as out of the 
heavens, with apoca- 
lyptical splendors, 

Sank the City of God, 
in the vision of John 

the Apostle, 
So, with its cloudy walls 

of chrysolite, jasper, 

and sapphire, 
Sank the broad red sun, 

and over its turrets 

uplifted 
Glimmered the golden 

reed of the angel who 



measured the citv. 



54 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

"Welcome, O wind of the East !" he ex- 
claimed in his wild exultation, 10 

"Welcome, O wind of the East, from the 
caves of the misty Atlantic ! 

Blowing o'er fields of dulse, and measure- 
less meadows of sea-grass, 

Blowing o'er rocky wastes, and the grottos 
and gardens of ocean ! 

Lay thy cold, moist hand on my burning fore- 
head, and wrap me 

Close in thy garments of mist, to allay the 

fever within me!" 15 



Like an awakened conscience, the sea was 
moaning and tossing, 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 55 

Beating remorseful and loud the mutable 

sands of the sea-shore. 
Fierce in his soul was the struggle and tumult 

of passions contending ; 
Love triumphant and crowned, and friend- 
ship wounded and bleeding, 
Passionate cries of desire, and importunate 

pleadings of duty ! 20 

''Is it my fault," he said, "that the maiden 

has chosen between us? 
Is it my fault that he failed, — my fault that I 

am the victor?" 
Then within him there thundered a voice, like 

the voice of the Prophet : 
"It hath displeased the Lord !" — and he 

thought of David's transgression, 



56 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

Bathsheba's beautiful face, and his friend in 

the front of the battle ! 25 

Shame and confusion of guilt, and abasement 
and self-condemnation, 

Overwhelmed him at once; and he cried in 
the deepest contrition : 

"It hath displeased the Lord ! It is the temp- 
tation of Satan !" 



Then, uplifting his head, he looked at the 

sea, and beheld there 
Dimly the shadowy form of the May Flower 

riding at anchor, 30 

Rocked on the rising tide, and ready to sail 

on the morrow ; 




Paced up' and down the sands, and bared his head to the east wind, 
Cooling his heated brow, and the fire and fever within him. 




Oh 
W 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 57 

Heard the voices of men through the mist, 

the rattle of cordage 
Thrown on the deck, the shouts of the mate, 

and the sailors' "Ay; ay, Sir!" 
Clear and distinct, but not loud, in the drip- 
ping air of the twilight. 
Still for a moment he stood, and listened, 

and stared at the vessel, 35 

Then went hurriedly on, as one who, seeing 

a phantom, 
Stops, then quickens his pace, and follows the 

beckoning shadow. 
"Yes, it is plain to me now," he murmured; 

"the hand of the Lord is . 
Leading me out of the land of darkness, the 
bondage of error, 



58 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES ST4NDISH. 



Through the sea, that shall lift the walls of 

its waters around me, 40 




-~*!Sgy, 



Hiding me, cutting me off, from the cruel 

thoughts that pursue me. 
Back will I go o'er the ocean, this dreary land 

will abandon. 
Her whom I may not love, and him whom my 
heart has offended. 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES ST A 'N DISH. 59 

Better to be in my grave in the green old 
churchyard in England, 

Close by my mother's side, and among the 

dust of my kindred ; 45 

Better be dead and forgotten, than living in 
shame and dishonor ! 

Sacred and safe and unseen, in the dark of the 
the narrow chamber 

With me my secret shall lie, like a buried 
jewel that glimmers 

Bright on the hand that is dust, in the cham- 
bers of silence and darkness, — 

Yes, as the marriage ring of the great espou- 
sal hereafter !" 50 



60 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 



Thus as he spake, he turned, in the 
strength of his strong- resolution, 
Leaving behind him the shore, and hurried 
along in the twilight, 




Through the congenial gloom of the forest 



silent and sombre, 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 61 

Till he beheld the lights in the seven houses 

of Plymouth, 
Shining like seven stars in the dusk and mist 

of the evening. 55 

Soon he entered his door, and found the re- 
doubtable Captain 
Sitting alone, and absorbed in the martial 

pages of Caesar, 
Fighting some great campaign in Hainault or 

Brabant or Flanders. 
"Long have you been on your errand," he 

said with a cheery demeanor. 
Even as one who is waiting an answer, and 

fears not the issue. 60 

"Not far off is the house, although the woods 

are between us ; 



62 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STANDISH. 

But you have lingered so long, that while you 
were going and coming 

I have fought ten battles and sacked and de- 
molished a city. 

Come, sit down, and in order relate to me all 
that has happened." 



Then John Alden spake, and related the 

wondrous adventure, 65 

From beginning to end, minutely, just as it 

happened ; 
How he had seen Priscilla, and how he had 

sped in his courtship, 
Only smoothing a little, and softening down 

her refusal. 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES ST4NDISH. 63 

But when he came at length to the words 
Priscilla had spoken, 

Words so tender and cruel : "Why don't you 

speak for yourself, John?" 70 

Up leaped the Captain of Plymouth, and 
stamped on the floor, till his armor 

Clanged on the wall, where it hung, with a 
sound of sinister omen. 

All his pent-up wrath burst forth in a sud- 
den explosion, 

Even as a hand-grenade, that scatters de- 
struction around it. 

Wildly he shouted, and loud : "John Alden ! 

you have betrayed me ! 75 

Me, Miles Standish, your friend ! have sup- 
planted, defrauded, betrayed me! 



64 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 



One of my ancestors ran his sword through 
the heart of Wat Tyler ; 




Who shall prevent me from running my own 
through the heart of a traitor ? 

Yours is the greater treason, for yours is a 
treason to friendship ! 

You, who lived under my roof, whom I cher- 
ished and loved as a brother; 80 

You, who have fed at my board, and drunk at 
my cup, to whose keeping 

I have entrusted my honor, my thoughts the 
most sacred and secret, — 




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THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 65 

You too, Brutus ! ah woe to the name of 

friendship hereafter ! 
Brutus was Caesar's friend, and you were 

mine, but henceforward 
Let there be nothing between us save war, 

and implacable hatred !" 85 



So spake the Captain of Plymouth, and 
strode about in the chamber, 

Chafing and choking with rage ; like cords 
were the veins on his temples. 

But in the midst of his anger a man appeared 
at the doorway, 

Bringing in uttermost haste a message of ur- 
gent importance, 



66 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH 

Rumors of danger and war and hostile incur- 
sions of Indians ! 90 

Straightway the Captain paused, and, with- 
out further question or parley, 

Took from the nail on the wall his sword 
with its scabbard of iron, 

Buckled the belt round his waist, and, frown- 
ing fiercely, departed. 

Alden was left alone. He heard the clank of 
the scabbard 

Growing fainter and fainter, and dying away 

in the distance. 95 

Then he arose from his seat, and looked forth 
into the darkness, 

Felt the cool air blow on his cheek, that was 
hot with the insult, 



. THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 67 

Lifted his eyes to the heavens, and, folding 

his hands as in childhood, 
Prayed in the silence of night to the Father 

who seeth in secret. 



Meanwhile the choleric Captain strode 

wrathfully away to the council, ioo 

Found it already assembled, impatiently 
waiting his coming; 

Men in the middle of life, austere and grave 
in deportment, 

Only one of them old, the hill that was near- 
est to heaven, 

Covered with snow, but erect, the excellent 
Elder of Plymouth. 



68 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STANDISH. 

God had sifted three kingdoms to find the 

wheat for this planting, 105 

Then had sifted the wheat, as the living seed 
of a nation ; 

So say the chronicles old, and such is the faith 
of the people! 

Near them was standing an Indian, in at- 
titude stern and defiant, 

Naked down to the waist, and grim and fero- 
cious in aspect ; 

While on the table before them was lying un- 
opened a Bible, no 

Ponderous, bound in leather, brass-studded, 
printed in Holland, 

And beside it outstretched the skin of a rattle- 
snake glittered, 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 



69 




Filled, like a quiver, 
with arrows ; a 
signal and chal- 
lenge of warfare, 
Brought by the In- 
dian, and speak- 
ing with arrowy tongues of defiance. 

This Miles Standish beheld, as he entered, 

and heard them debating 1 1 5 

What were an answer befitting the hostile 
message and menace, 

Talking of this and of that, contriving, sug- 
gesting, objecting; 

One voice only for peace, and that the voice 
of the Elder, 



70 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

Judging it wise and well that some at least 

were converted, 
Rather than any were slain, for this was but 

Christian behavior ! 120 

Then outspake Miles Standish, the stalwart 

Captain of Plymouth, 
Muttering deep in his throat, for his voice 

was husky with anger, 
"What ! do you mean to make war with milk 

and the water of roses ? 
Is it to shoot red squirrels you have your 

howitzer planted 
There on the roof of the church, or is it to 

shoot red devils? 125 

Truly the only tongue that is understood by a 

savage 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 71 

Must be the tongue of fire that speaks from 
the mouth of the cannon !" 

Thereupon answered and said the excellent 
Elder of Plymouth, 

Somewhat amazed and alarmed at this irrev- 
erent language : 

"Not so thought Saint Paul, nor yet the other 

Apostles ; 130 

Not from the cannon's mouth were the 
tongues of fire they spake with !" 

But unheeded fell this mild rebuke on the 
Captain, 

Who had advanced to the table, and thus con- 
tinued discoursing: 

"Leave this matter to me, for to me by right 
it pertaineth. 



72 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

War is a terrible trade ; but in the cause that 

• is righteous, 135 

Sweet is the smell of powder ; and thus I an- 
swer the challenge !" 



Then from the rattlesnake's skin, with a 
sudden, contemptuous gesture, 

Jerking the Indian arrows, he filled it with 
powder and bullets 

Full to the very jaws, and handed it back to 
the savage, 

Saying, in thundering tones : "Here, take it ! 

this is your answer !" 14° 

Silently out of the room then glided the glis- 
tening savage, 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 73 

Bearing the serpent's skin, and seeming him- 
self like a serpent, 




Winding his sinuous way in the dark to the 
depths of the forest. 




V. 



THE SAILING OF THE MAY FLOWER. 




UST in the gray of 
the dawn, as the 
mists uprose from 
the meadows, 
There was a stir and a sound in the slumber- 
ing village of Plymouth ; 
74 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 75 

Clanging and clicking of arms, and the order 

imperative, "Forward !" 
Given in tone suppressed, a tramp of feet, and 

then silence. 
Figures ten, in the mist, marched slowly out 

of the village. 5 

Standish the stalwart it was, with eight of his 

valorous army, 
Led by their Indian guide, by Hobomok, 

friend of the white men, 
Northward marching to quell the sudden re- 
volt of the savage. 
Giants they seemed in the mist, or the mighty 

men of King David ; 
Giants in heart they were, who believed in 

God and the Bible, — ■ 10 



76 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES ST AH DISH. 



Ay, who believed in the smiting of Midianites 
and Philistines. 

Over them gleamed far off the crimson ban- 
ners of morning; 







Under them loud on the sands, the serried 
billows, advancing, 

Fired along the line, and in regular order re- 
treated. 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES ST4NDISH. 77 

Many a mile had they marched, when at 

length the village of Plymouth 15 

Woke from its sleep, and arose, intent on its 
manifold labors. 

Sweet was the air and soft; and slowly the 
smoke from the chimneys 

Rose over roofs of thatch, and pointed stead- 
ily eastward; 

Men came forth from the doors, and paused 
and talked of the weather, 

Said that the wind had changed, and was 

blowing fair for the May Flower ; 20 

Talked of their Captain's departure, and all 
the dangers that menaced, 

He being gone, the town, and what should be 
done in his absence. 



78 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

Merrily sang the birds, and the tender voices 

of women 
Consecrated with hymns the common cares of 

the household. 
Out of the sea rose the sun, and the billows 

rejoiced at his coming; 25 

Beautiful were his feet on the purple tops of 

the mountains ; 
Beautiful on the sails of the May Flower rid- 
ing at anchor, 
Battered and blackened and worn by all the 

storms of the winter. 
Loosely against her masts was hanging and 

flapping her canvas, 
Rent by so many gales, and patched by the 

hands of the sailors. 30 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 79 

Suddenly from her side, as the sun rose over 

the ocean, 
Darted a puff of smoke, and floated seaward ; 

anon rang 
Loud over field and forest the cannon's roar, 

and the echoes 
Heard and repeated the sound, the signal- 
gun of departure! 
Ah, but with louder echoes replied the hearts 

of the people! 35 

Meekly, in voices subdued, the chapter was 

read from the Bible, 
Meekly the prayer was begun, but ended in 

fervent entreaty ! 
Then from their houses in haste came forth 

the Pilgrims of Plymouth, 



80 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 



Men and women and children, all hurrying 

down to the sea-shore, 
Eager, with tearful eyes, to say farewell to 

the May Flower, 40 

Homeward bound o'er the sea, and leaving 

them here in the desert. 




Foremost among them was Alden. All 

night he had lain without slumber, 
Turning and tossing about in the heat and 

unrest of his fever. 
He had beheld Miles Standish, who came 

back late from the council, 
Stalking into the room, and heard him mutter 

and murmur, 



45 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES ST4NDISH. 



81 



Sometimes it seemed a prayer, and sometimes 

it sounded like swearing. 

Once he had come to the bed, and stood there 
a moment in silence; 

Then he had turned away, and said : "I will 



not awake him ; 




Let him sleep on, 
it is best; for 

what is the use of 
more talking!" 
Then he extin- 
guished the light, 
and threw him- 
self down on his 
pallet, 50 



82 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STANDISH. 

Dressed as he was, and ready to start at the 

break of the morning, — 
Covered himself with the cloak he had worn 

in his campaigns in Flanders, — 
Slept as a soldier sleeps in his bivouac, ready 

for action. 
But with the dawn he arose ; in the twilight 

Alden beheld him 
Put on his corslet of steel, and all the rest of 

his armor, 55 

Buckle about his waist his trusty blade of 

Damascus, 
Take from the corner his musket, and so 

stride out of the chamber. 
Often the heart of the youth had burned and 

yearned to embrace him, 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 83 

Often his lips had essayed to speak, implor- 
ing- for pardon; 

All the old friendship came back, with its ten- 
der and grateful emotions; 60 

But his pride overmastered the nobler nature 
within him, — 

Pride, and the sense of his wrong, and the 
burning fire of the insult. 

So he beheld his friend departing in anger, 
but spake not, 

Saw him go forth to danger, perhaps to 
death, and he spake not ! 

Then he arose from his bed, and heard what 

the people were saying, 65 

Joined in the talk at the door, with Stephen 
and Richard and Gilbert, 



84 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 



Joined in the morning prayer, and in the 

reading of Scripture, 
And, with the others, in haste went hurrying 

down to the sea-shore, 
Down to the Plymouth Rock, that had been 

to their feet as a door-step 
Into a world unknown, — the corner-stone of 

a nation! . 70 




Monument now Guarding the Plymouth Rock. 




+j CD 



H += 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 85 

There with his boat was the Master, al- 
ready a little impatient 
Lest he should lose the tide, or the wind 

might shift to the eastward, 
Square-built, hearty, and strong, with an 

odor of ocean about him, 
Speaking with this one and that, and cram- 

ming letters and parcels 
Into his pockets capacious, and messages 

mingled together 7.5 

Into his narrow brain, till at last he was 

wholly bewildered. 
Nearer the boat stood Alden, with one foot 

placed on the gunwale, 
One still firm on the rock, and talking at 

times with the sailors, 



86 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

Seated erect on the thwarts, all ready and 
eager for starting". 

He too was eager to go, and thus put an end 

to his anguish, So 

Thinking to fly from despair, that swifter 
than keel is or canvas, 

Thinking to drown in the sea the ghost that 
would rise and pursue him. 

But as he gazed on the crowd, he beheld the 
form of Priscilla 

Standing dejected among them, unconscious 
of all that was passing. 

Fixed were her eyes upon his, as if she di- 
vined his intention, 85 

Fixed with a look so sad, so reproachful, im- 
ploring, and patient, 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 87 

That with a sudden revulsion his heart re- 
coiled from its purpose, 

As from the verge of a crag - , where one step 
more is destruction. 

Strange is the heart of man, with its quick, 
mysterious instincts ! 

Strange is the life of man, and fatal or fated 

are moments, 90 

Whereupon turn, as on hinges, the gates of 
the wall adamantine ! 

"Here I remain !" he exclaimed, as he looked 
at the heavens above him, 

Thanking the Lord whose breath had scat- 
tered the mist and the madness. 

Wherein, blind and lost, to death he was 
staggering headlong. 



88 THE COURTSHIP OF' MILES STAN DISH. 

"Yonder snow-white cloud, that floats in the 

ether above me, 95 

Seems like a hand that is pointing and beck- 
oning over the ocean. 

There is another hand, that is not so spectral 
and ghost-like, 

Holding me, drawing me back, and clasping 
mine for protection. 

Float, O hand of cloud, and vanish away in 
the ether ! 

Roll thyself up like a fist, to threaten and 

daunt me; I heed not 100 

Either your warning or menace, or any omen 
of evil ! 

There is no land so sacred, no air so pure and 
so wholesome, 




Fixed were her eyes upon his, as if she divined his intention, 
Fixed with a look so sad, so reproachful, imploring, and patient. 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 89 

As is the air she breathes, and the soil that is 
pressed by her footsteps. 

Here for her sake will I stay, and like an in- 
visible presence 

Hover around her for ever, protecting, sup- 
porting her weakness ; 105 

Yes ! as my foot was the first that stepped on 
this rock at the landing, 

So, with the blessing of God, shall it be the 
last at the leaving!" 



Meanwhile the Master alert, but with dig- 
nified air and important. 
Scanning with watchful eye the tide and the 
wind and the weather, 



90 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

Walked about on the sands; and the people 

crowded around him no 

Saying a few last words, and enforcing his 
careful remembrance. 

Then, taking each by the hand, as if he were 
grasping a tiller, 

Into the boat he sprang, and in haste shoved 
off to his vessel, 

Glad in his heart to get rid of all this worry 
and flurry, 

Glad to be gone from a land of sand and sick- 
ness and sorrow, 115 

Short allowance of victual, and plenty of 
nothing but Gospel ! 

Lost in the sound of the oars was the last 



farewell of the Pilgrims. 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 91 

O strong hearts and true ! not one went back 

in the May Flower ! 
No, not one looked back, who had set his 

hand to this ploughing! 




Soon were heard on board the shouts and 

songs of the sailors 120 

Heaving the windlass round, and hoisting 
the ponderous anchor. 

Then the yards were braced, and all sails set 
to the west-wind, 



92 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAhlDlSH. 

Blowing steady and strong; and the May 
Flower sailed from the harbor, 

Rounded the point of the Gurnet, and leav- 
ing far to the southward 

Island and cape of sand, and the Field of the 

First Encounter, 125 

Took the wind on her quarter, and stood for 
the open Atlantic, 

Borne on the sand of the sea, and the swell- 
ing hearts of the Pilgrims. 



Long in silence they watched the receding 
sail of the vessel, 
Much endeared to them all, as something liv- 
ing and human ; 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAHDtSH. 93 

Then, as if filled with the spirit, and wrapt in 

a vision prophetic, . 130 

Baring his hoary head, the excellent Elder of 

Plymouth 
Said, "Let us pray!" and they prayed, and 

thanked the Lord and took courage. 
Mournfully sobbed the waves at the base of 

the rock, and above them 
Bowed and whispered the wheat on the hill 

of death, and their kindred 
Seemed to awake in their graves, and to join 

in the prayer that they uttered. 135 

Sun-illumined and white, on the eastern 

verge of the ocean 
Gleamed the departing sail, like a marble slab 

in a graveyard; 



94 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

Buried beneath it lay for ever all hope of es- 
caping. 

Lo ! as they turned to depart, they saw the 
form of an Indian, 

Watching them from the hill ; but while they 

spake with each other, 140 

Pointing with outstretched hands, and say- 
ing, "Look !" he had vanished. 

So they returned to their homes ; but Alden 
lingered a little, 

Musing alone on the shore, and watching the 
wash of the billows 

Round the base of the rock, and the sparkle 
and flash of the sunshine, 

Like the spirit of God, moving visibly over 

the waters. 145 




VI. 



PRISCILLA. 



HUS for a while he 

stood, and mused 

by the shore of 

the ocean, 

Thinking of many 

things, and most 

of all of Priscilla ; 

And as if thought had the power to draw to 

itself, like the loadstone, 
95 




93 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

Whatsoever it touches, by subtile laws of its 

nature, 
Lo ! as he turned to depart, Priscilla was 

standing beside him. 5 



"Are you so much offended, you will not 
speak to me?" said she. 

"Am I so much to blame, that yesterday, 
when you were pleading 

Warmly the cause of another, my heart, im- 
pulsive and wayward, 

Pleaded your own, and spake out, forgetful 
perhaps of decorum? 

Certainly you can forgive me for speaking so 

frankly, for saying 10 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 97 

What I ought not to have said, yet now I can 

never unsay it; 
For there are moments in life, when the 

heart is so full of emotion, 
That if by chance it be shaken, or into its 

depths like a pebble 
Drops some careless word, it overflows, and 

its secret, 
Spilt on the ground like water, can never be 

gathered together. 15 

Yesterday I was shocked, when I heard you 

speak of Miles Standish, 
Praising his virtues, transforming his very 

defects into virtues, 



98 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STANDISH. 



iy.a*3BsaifcSfe. 




Praising 'his cour- 
age and strength, 
and even his 
fighting in Fland- 
ers, 
As if by fighting alone you could win the 

heart of a woman, 
Quite overlooking yourself and the rest, in 

exalting your hero. 20 

Therefore I spake as I did, by an irresistible 

impulse. 
You will forgive me, I hope, for the sake of 

the friendship between us, 
Which is too true and too sacred to be so 



easily broken!' 




Thus, as a pilgrim devout, who toward Jerusalem journeys, 
Journeyed this Puritan youth to the Holy Land of his longings, 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 99 

Thereupon answered John Alclen, the schol- 
ar, the friend of Miles Standish : 

"I was not angry with you, with myself alone 

I was angry, 25 

Seeing how badly I managed the matter I 
had in my keeping." 

"No !" interrupted the maiden, with answer 
prompt and decisive; 

"No; you were angry with me, for speaking 
so frankly and freely. 

It was wrong, I acknowledge; for it is the 
fate of a woman 

Long to be patient and silent, to wait like a 

ghost that is speechless, 30 

Till some questioning voice dissolves the 
spell of its silence. 



100 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

Hence is the inner life of so many suffering 
women 

Sunless and silent and deep, like subterran- 
ean rivers 

Running through caverns of darkness, un- 
heard, unseen, and unfruitful, 

Chafing their channels of stone, with endless 

and profitless murmurs." 35 

Thereupon answered John Alden, the young 
man, the lover of women : 

"Heaven forbid it, Priscilla ; and truly they 
seem to me always 

More like the beautiful rivers that watered 
the garden of Eden, 

More like the river Euphrates, through des- 
erts of Havilah flowing, 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES ST4NDISH. 101 

Filling the land with delight, and memories 

sweet of the garden!" 40 

"Ah, by these words, I can see," again inter- 
rupted the maiden, 

"How very little you prize me, or care for 
what I am saying. 

When from the depths of my heart, in pain 
and with secret misgiving, 

Frankly I speak to you, asking for sympathy 
only and kindness, 

Straightway you take up my words, that are 

plain and direct and in earnest, 45 

Turn them away from their meaning, and 
answer with flattering phrases. 

This is not right, is not just, is not true to 
the best that is in you ; 



102 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

For I know and esteem you, and feel that 
your nature is noble, 

Lifting mine up to a higher, a more ethereal 
level. 

Therefore I value your friendship, and feel it 

perhaps the more keenly 50 

If you say aught that implies I am only as 
one among many, 

If you make use of those common and com- 
plimentary phrases 

Most men think so fine, in dealing and speak- 
ing with women, 

But which women reject as insipid, if not as 
insulting." 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES ST4NDISH. 103 

Mute and amazed was Alden; and listened 

and looked at Priscilla, 55 

Thinking he never had seen her more fair, 

more divine in her beauty. 
He who but yesterday pleaded so glibly the 

cause of another, 
Stood there embarrassed and silent, and 

seeking in vain for an answer. 
So the maiden went on, and little divined or 

imagined 
What was at work in his heart, that made 

him so awkward and speechless. 60 

"Let us, then, be what we are, and speak 

what we think, and in all things 
Keep ourselves loyal to truth, and the sacred 

professions of friendship. 



104 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

It is no secret I tell you, nor am I ashamed to 

declare it : 
I have liked to be with you, to see you, to 

speak with you always. 
So I was hurt at your words, and a little af- 
fronted to hear you 65 
Urge me to marry your friend, though he 

were the Captain Miles Standish. 
For I must tell you the truth : much more to 

me is your friendship 
Than all the love he could give, were he twice 

the hero you think him." 
Then she extended her hand, and Alden, who 

eagerly grasped it, 
Felt all the wounds in his heart, that were 

aching and bleeding so sorely, 70 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 105 

Healed by the touch of that hand, and he 
said, with a voice full of. feeling: 

"Yes, we must ever be friends; and of all 
who offer you friendship 

Let me be ever the first, the truest, the near- 
est and dearest!" 



Casting a farewell look at the glimmering 

sail of the May Flower, 
Distant, but still in sight, and sinking below 

the horizon, 75 

Homeward together they walked, with a 

strange, indefinite feeling, 
That all the rest had departed and left them 

alone in the desert. 



106 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

But, as they went through the fields in the 

blessing and smile of the sunshine, 
Lighter grew their hearts, and Priscilla said 

very archly : 
"Now that our terrible Captain has gone in 

pursuit of the Indians, 80 

Where he is happier far than he would be 

commanding a household, 
You may speak boldly, and tell me of all that 

happened between you, 
When you returned last night, and said how 

ungrateful you found me." 
Thereupon answered John Alden, and told 

her the whole of the story, — 
Told her his own despair, and the direful 

wrath of Miles Standish. 85 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 107 

Whereat the maiden smiled, and said be- 
tween laughing and earnest, 
"He is a little chimney, and heated hot in a. 

moment !" 
But as he gently rebuked her, and told her 

how much he had suffered, — 
How he had even determined to sail that day 

in the May Flower, 
And had remained for her sake, on hearing 

the dangers that threatened* — 90 

All her manner was changed, and she said 

with a faltering accent, 
"Truly I thank you for this : how good you 

have been to me always !" 



108 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

Thus, as a pilgrim devout, who toward Je- 
rusalem journeys, 

Taking three steps in advance, and one reluc- 
tantly backward, 

Urged by importunate zeal, and withheld by 

pangs of contrition ; IOO 

Slowly but steadily onward, receding yet 
ever advancing, 

Journeyed this Puritan youth to the Holy 
Land of his longings. 

Urged by the fervor of love, and withheld by 
remorseful misgivings 



On^ '•' 





VII. 

THE MARCH OF MILES STANDISH. 

EANWHILE the 



stalwart Miles 
Standish was 
marchinsr' stead- 




ily northward, 



Winding through 



forest and swamp, 
and along the trend of the seashore, 
All day long, with hardly a halt, the fire of 



his anger 



Burning and crackling within, and the sul- 
phurous odor of powder 
109 



110 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES ST4NDISH. 




Seeming more 
sweet to his nos- 
trils than all the 
scents of the for- 
est. 

Silent and moody- 
he went, and 
much he revolved 
his discomfort; . 

He who was used to 
success, and to 

easy victories al- 
ways, 
§ Thus to be flouted, 
rejected, and 



laughed to scorn 



by a maiden, 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. Ill 

Thus to be mocked and betrayed by the friend 
whom most he had trusted ! 

Ah ! 'twas too much to be borne, and he fret- 
ted and chafed in his armor! 10 



"I alone am to blame," he muttered, "for 
mine was the folly. 

What has a rough old soldier, grown grim 
and gray in the harness, 

Used to the camp and its ways, to do with 
the wooing of maidens? 

'Twas but a dream, — let it pass, — let it van- 
ish like so many others ! 

What I thought was a flower, is only a weed, 

and is worthless; 15 



112 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 



Out of my heart will I pluck it, and throw it 
away, and henceforward 

Be but a fighter of battles, a lover and wooer 
of dangers !" 

Thus he revolved in his mind his sorry de- 
feat and discomfort, 

While he was marching by day or lying at 
night in the forest, 

Looking up at the trees, and the constella- 
tions beyond them. 

After a three days' 
march he came to 
a n Indian e n- 
campment 

Pitched on the edge 
of a meadow, be- 
tween the sea and 
the forest; 




20 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STANDISH. 113 

Women at work by the tents, and the war- 
riors, horrid with war-paint, 
Seated about a fire, and smoking and talking 

together ; 
Who, when they saw from afar the sudden 

approach of the white men, 25 

Saw the flash of the sun on breastplate and 

sabre and musket, 
Straightway leaped to their feet, and two, 

from among them advancing, 
Came to parley with Standish, and offer him 

furs as a present; 
Friendship was in their looks, but in their 

hearts there was hatred. 
Braves of the tribe were these, and brothers 

gigantic in stature, 30 



114 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

Huge as Goliath of Gath, or the terrible Og, 

king of Bashan; 
One was Pecksuot named, and the other was 

called Wattawamat. 
Round their necks were suspended their 

knives in scabbards of wampum, 
Two-edged, trenchant knives, with points as 

sharp as a needle. 
Other arms had they none, for they were 

cunning and crafty. 35 

"Welcome, English!" they said, — these 

words they had learned from the 

traders 
Touching at times on the coast, to barter 

and chaffer for peltries 




Huge as Goliath of Gath, or the terrible Og, king 

of Bashan; 
One was Pecksuot named, and the other was called 

Wattawamat. 




Led by their Indian guide, by Hobomok, friend of the white men, 
Northward marching to quell the sudden revolt of the savage. 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 



115 



Then in their native tongue they began to 

parley with Standish, 
Through his guide and interpreter, Hobo- 

mok, friend of the white man, 




After a three days' march he came to an Indian encampment 
Pitched on the edge of a meadow, between the sea and the forest. 



Begging for blankets and knives, but mostly 

for muskets and powder, 40 



116 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

Kept by the white man, they said, concealed, 

with the plague, in his cellars, 
Ready to be let loose, and destroy his brother 

the red man! 
But when Standish refused, and said he 

would give them the Bible, 
Suddenly changing their tone, they began to 

boast and to bluster. 
Then Wattawamat advanced with a stride in 

front of the other, 45 

And, with a lofty demeanor, thus vauntingly 

spake to the Captain : 
"Now Wattawamat can see, by the fiery eyes 

of the Captain, 
Angry is he in his heart; but the heart of 

the brave Wattawamat 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 117 

Is not afraid at the sight. He was not born 

of a woman, 
But on a mountain, at night, from an oak- 
tree riven by lightning, 50 
Forth he sprang at a bound, with all his 

weapons about him, 
Shouting, 'Who is there here to fight with 

the brave Wattawamat?' " 
Then he unsheathed his knife, and, whetting 

the blade on his left hand, 
Held it aloft and displayed a woman's face 

on the handle, 
Saying, with bitter expression and look of 

sinister meaning : 55 

"I have another at home, with the face of a 

man on the handle; 



118 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES ST^NDISH. 



By and by they shall marry; and there will 
be plenty of children !" 



Then stood Pecksuot forth self -vaunting, 



insulting Miles Standish 



While with his fingers he patted the knife 

that hung at his bosom, 
Drawing it half from its sheath, and plung- 
ing it back, as he muttered, 

"By and by it shall 
see; it shall eat; 
ah, ha ! but shall 
speak not ! 
This is the mighty 
Captain the white men have sent to de- 
stroy us ! 




60 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 119 

He is a little man ; let him go and work with 
the women !" 



Meanwhile Standish had noted the faces 

and figures of Indians 
Peeping and creeping about from bush to 

tree in the forest, 65 

Feigning to look for game, with arrows set 

on their bow-strings, 
Drawing about him still closer and closer the 

net of their ambush. 
But undaunted he stood, and dissembled and 

treated them smoothly; 
So the old chronicles say, that were writ in 

the days of the fathers. 



120 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES ST A hi DISH. 

But when he heard their defiance, the boast, 

the taunt, and the insult, 70 

All the hot blood of his race, of Sir Hugh 
and of Thurston de Standish, 

Boiled and beat in his heart, and swelled in 
the veins of his temples. 

Headlong he leaped on the boaster, and, 
snatching his knife from its scabbard, 

Plunged it into his heart, and, reeling back- 
ward, the savage 

Fell with his face to the sky, and a fiendlike 

fierceness upon it. 75 

Straight there arose from the forest the awful 
sound of the war-whoop, 

And, like a flurry of snow on the whistling 
wind of December, 




But undaunted he stood, and dissembled and treated them smoothly; 
So the old chronicles say, that were writ in the days of the fathers. 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES ST4NDISH. 121 

Swift and sudden and keen came a flight of 

feathery arrows. 
Then came a cloud of smoke, and out of the 

cloud came the lightning, 
Out of the lightning thunder ; and death un- 
seen ran before it. 80 
Frightened the savages fled for shelter in 

swamp and in thicket, 
Hotly pursued and beset; but their sachem, 

the brave Wattawamat, 
Fled not; he was dead. Unswerving and 

swift had a bullet 
Passed through his brain, and he fell with 

both hands clutching the greensward, 
Seeming in death to hold back from his foe 

the land of his fathers. 85 



122 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES ST^NDISH. 

There on the flowers of the meadow the 
warriors lay, and above them, 

Silent, with folded arms, stood Hobomok, 
friend of the white man. 

Smiling at length he exclaimed to the stal- 
wart Captain of Plymouth : 

"Pecksuot bragged very loud, of his courage, 
his strength, and his stature, — 

Mocked the great Captain, and called him a 

little man ; but I see now 90 

Big enough have you been to lay him speech- 
less before you !". 



Thus the first battle was fought and won 
by the stalwart Miles Standish. 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 123 

When the tidings thereof were brought to the 

village of Plymouth, 
And as a trophy of war the head of the brave 

Wattawamat 
Scowled from the roof of the fort, which at 

once was a church and a fortress, 95 

All who beheld it rejoiced, and praised the 

Lord, and took courage. 
Only Priscilla averted her face from this 

spectre of terror, 
Thanking God in her heart that she had not 

married Miles Standish; 
Shrinking, fearing almost, lest, coming home 

from his battles, 
He should lay claim to her hand, as the prize 

and reward of his valor. 100 




VIII. 

THE SPINNING WHEEL. 

ONTH after month 
passed away, and 
in Autumn the 
ships of the mer- 
chants 
Came with kindred and friends, with cattle 
and corn for th~ Pilgrims. 

All in the village was peace; the men were 

intent on their labors, 
124 




THE COURTSHIP OF MILES ST4NDISH. 125 

Busy with hewing and building, with garden- 
plot and with merestead, 

Busy with breaking the glebe, and mowing. 

the grass in the meadows, 5 

Searching the sea for its fish, and hunting the 
deer in the forest. 

All in the village was peace ; but at times the 
rumor of warfare 

Filled the air with alarm, and the apprehen- 
sion of danger. 

Bravely the stalwart Miles Standish was 
scouring the land with his forces, 

Waxing valiant in fight and defeating the 

alien armies, 10 

Till his name had become a sound of fear to 
the nations. 



126 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES ST4NDISH. 

Anger was still in his heart, but at times the 
remorse and contrition 

Which in all noble natures succeed the pas- 
sionate outbreak, 

Came like a rising tide, that encounters the 
rush of a river, 

Staying its current awhile, but making it bit- 
ter and brackish. 15 

Meanwhile Alden at home had built him a 

new habitation, 
Solid, substantial, 
of timber rough- 
hewn from the 
firs of the forest. 





Busy with breaking the glebe, and mowing the grass in the meadows. 
Searching the sea for its fish, and hunting the deer in the forest. 




He sitting awkwardly there, with his arms extended 
before him, 

She standing graceful, erect, and winding the thread 
from his fingers, 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STANDISH. 127 

Wooden-barred was the door, and the roof 
was covered with rushes; 

Latticed the windows were, and the window- 
panes were of paper, 

Oiled to admit the light, while wind and rain 

were excluded. 20 

There too he dug a well, and around it plant- 
ed an orchard : 

Still may be seen to this day some trace of 
the well and the orchard. 

Close to the house was the stall, where, safe 
and secure from annoyance, 

Raghorn, the snow-white steer, that had fall- 
en to Alden's allotment 

In the division of cattle, might ruminate in 

the night-time 25 



128 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

Over the pastures he cropped, made fragrant 
by sweet pennyroyal. 



Oft when his labor was finished, with eag- 
er feet would the dreamer 

Follow the pathway that ran through the 
woods to the house of Priscilla, 

Led by illusions romantic and subtile decep- 
tions of fancy, 

Pleasure disguised as duty, and love in the 

semblance of friendship. 30 

Ever of her he thought, when he fashioned 
the walls of his dwelling; 

Ever of her he thought, when he delved in 
the soil of his garden ; 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 129 

Ever of her he thought, when he read in his 
Bible on Sunday 

Praise of the virtuous woman, as she is de- 
scribed in the Proverbs, — 

How the heart of her husband doth safely- 
trust in her always, 35 

How all the days of her life she will do him 
good, and not evil, 

How she seeketh the wool and the flax and 
worketh with gladness, 

How she layeth her hand to the spindle and 
holdeth the distaff, 

How she is not afraid of the snow for herself 
or her household, 

Knowing her household are clothed with the 

scarlet cloth of her weaving! 40 



130 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

So as she sat at her wheel one afternoon in 
Autumn, 

Alden, who opposite 
sa t, and was 
watching her 
dexterous fingers, 
As if the thread she 
was spinning 
were that of his life and his fortune, 
After a pause in their talk, thus spake to the 

sound of the spindle. 
'Truly, Priscilla," he said, "when I see you 

spinning and spinning, 45 

Never idle a moment, but thrifty and 
thoughtful of others, 




THE COURTSHIP OF MILES ST^INDISH. 131 

Suddenly you are transformed, are visibly 

changed in a moment; 
You are no longer Pr.'2ellla, but Bertha the 

Beautiful Spinner." 
Here the light foot on the treadle grew swift- 
er and swifter; the spindle 
Uttered an angry snarl, and the thread 

snapped short in her fingers ; 50 

While the impetuous speaker, not heeding the 

mischief, continued : 
"You are the beautiful Bertha, the spinner, 

the queen of Helvetia ; 
She whose stcry I read at a stall in the streets 

of Southampton, 
Who, as she rode on her. palfrey, o'er valley 

and meadow and mountain, 



132 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

Ever was spinning her thread from a distaff 

fixed to her saddle. 55 

She was so thrifty and good, that her name 
passed into a proverb. 

So shall it be with your own, when the spin- 
ning-wheel shall no longer 

Hum in the house of the farmer, and fill its 
chambers with music. 

Then shall the mothers, reproving, relate how 

it was in their childhood, 

Praising the good old times, and the days of 

Priscilla the spinner !" 60 

Straight uprose from her wheel the beautiful 

Puritan maiden, 
Pleased with the praise of her thrift from him 

whose praise was the sweetest, 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 133 

Drew from the reel on the table a snowy 
skein of her spinning, 

Thus making answer, meanwhile, to the flat- 
tering phrases of Alden : 

"Come, you must not be idle; if I am a 

pattern for housewives, 65 

Show yourself equally worthy of being the 
model of husbands. 

Hold this skein on your hands, while I wind 
it, ready for knitting; 

Then who knows but hereafter, when fash- 
ions have changed and the manners, 

Fathers may talk to their sons of the good old 
time of John Alden !" 

Thus, with a jest and a laugh, the skein on 

his hands she adjusted, 7° 



134 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES ST4NDISH. 

He sitting awkwardly there, with his arms 
extended before him, 

She standing graceful, erect, and winding 
the thread from his fingers, 

Sometimes chiding a little his clumsy man- 
ner of holding, 

Sometimes touching his hands, as she disen- 
tangled expertly 

Twist or knot in the yarn, unawares — for 

how could she help it? — 75 

Sending electrical thrills through every 

nerve in his body. 

Lo! in the midst of this scene, a breathless 
messenger entered, 
Bringing in hurry and heat the terrible news 
from the village. 




Bringing in hurry and heat the terrible news from the village. 
Yes; Miles Standish was dead! — an Indian had brought them the tidings. 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 135 

Yes ; Miles Standish was dead ! — an Indian 
had brought them the tidings, — 

Slain by a poisoned arrow, shot down in the 

front of the battle, 80 

Into an ambush beguiled, cut off with the 
whole of his forces; 

All the town would be burned, and all the 
people be murdered ! 

Such were the tidings of evil that burst on 
the hearts of the hearers. 

Silent and statue-like stood Priscilla, her face 
looking backward 

Still at the face of the speaker, her arms up- 
lifted in horror ; 85 

But John Alden, upstarting, as if the barb of 
the arrow 



136 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

Piercing the heart of his friend had struck 
his own, and had sundered 

Once and forever the bonds that held him 
bound as a captive, 

Wild with excess of sensation, the awful de- 
light of his freedom, 

Mingled with pain and regret, unconscious 

of what he was doing, 90 

Clasped, almost with a groan, the motionless 
form of Priscilla, 

Pressing her close to his heart, as forever his 

own, and exclaiming: 

"Those whom the Lord hath united, let no 
man put them asunder !" 

Even as rivulets twain, from distant and 
separate sources, 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH 137 

Seeing each other afar, as they leap from the 

rocks, and pursuing 95 

Each one its devious path, but drawing 
nearer and nearer, 

Rush together at last, at their trysting-place 
in the forest; 

So these lives that had run thus far in sep- 
arate channels, 

Coming in sight of each other, then swerving 
and flowing asunder, 

Parted by barriers strong, but drawing 

nearer and nearer, ioo 

Rushed together at last, and one was lost in 
the other. 




IX. 

THE WEDDING DAY. 

ORTH from the 
curtain of clouds, 
from the tent of 
purple and scarlet, 
Issued the sun, 
the great High- 
Priest, in his garments resplendent, 
Holiness unto the Lord, in letters of light, 

on his forehead, 

138 




THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STANDISH. 



139 




Round the hem of 
his robe the gold- 
en bells and pom- 
egranates. 

Blessing the world 
he came, and the 
bars of vapor be- 
neath him 

Gleamed like a grate 
of brass, and the 
seat at his feet was 
a laver! 

This was the wed- 
ding morn of 
Priscilla the Pur- 
itan maiden. 



140 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

Friends were assembled together; the Elder 

and Magistrate also 
Graced the scene with their presence, and 

stood like the Law and the Gospel, 
One with the sanction of earth and one with 

the blessing of heaven. 10 

Simple and brief was the wedding, as that of 

Ruth and Boaz. 
Softly the youth and the maiden repeated 

the words of betrothal, 
Taking each other for husband and wife in 

the Magistrate's presence, 
After the Puritan way, and the laudable cus- 
tom of Holland. 
Fervently then, and devoutly, the excellent 

Elder of Plymouth 15 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STANDISH. 141 

Prayed for the hearth and the home, that 
were founded that day in- affection, 

Speaking of life and of death, and implor- 
ing divine benedictions. 



Lo! when the service was ended, a form 
appeared on the threshold, 

Clad in armor of steel, a sombre and sorrow- 
ful figure! 

Why does the bridegroom start and stare at 

the strange apparition? 20 

Why does the bride turn pale, and hide her 
face on his shoulder? 

Is it a phantom of air, — a bodiless, spectral 
illusion ? 



142 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

Is it a ghost from the grave, that has come 

to forbid the betrothal? 
Long had it stood there unseen, a guest un- 
invited, unwelcomed ; 
Over its clouded eyes there had passed at 

times an expression 25 

Softening the gloom and revealing the warm 

heart hidden beneath them, 
As when across the sky the driving rack of 

the rain-cloud 
Grows for a moment thin, and betrays the 

sun by its brightness. 
Once it had lifted its hand, and moved its 

lips, but was silent, 
As if an iron will had mastered the fleeting 

intention. 30 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. . 143 

But when were ended the troth and the 

prayer and the last benediction, 
Into the room it strode, and the people beheld 

with amazement 
Bodily there in his armor Miles Standish, the 

Captain of Plymouth ! 
Grasping the bridegroom's hand, he said with 

emotion, "Forgive me! 
I have been angry and hurt, — too long have 

I cherished the feeling; 35 

I have been cruel and hard, but now, thank 

God ! it is ended. 

Mine is the same hot blood that leaped in the 

veins of Hugh Standish, 
Sensitive, swift to resent, but as swift in 

atoning for error. 



144 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAhlDISH. 

Never so much as now was Miles Standish 

the friend of John Alden." 
Thereupon answered the bridegroom : "Let 

all be forgotten between us, — 40 

All save the dear, old friendship, and that • 

shall grow older and dearer !" 
Then the Captain advanced, and, bowing, 

saluted Priscilla, 
Gravely, and after the manner of old-fash- 
ioned gentry in England, 
Something of camp and of court, of town 

and of country, commingled, 
Wishing her joy of her wedding, and loudly 

lauding her husband. 45 

Then he said with a smile: "I should have 

remembered the adage, — 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 145 

If you would be well served, you must serve 

yourself; and moreover, 
No man can gather cherries in Kent at the 

season of Christmas !" 



Great was the people's amazement, and 

greater yet their rejoicing, 
Thus to behold once more the sun-burnt face 

of their Captain, 50 

Whom they had mourned as dead ; and they 

gathered and crowded about him, 
Eager to see him and hear him, forgetful of 

bride and of bridegroom, 
Questioning, answering, laughing, and each 

interrupting the other, 



146 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

Till the good Captain declared, being quite 

overpowered and bewildered, 
He had rather by far break into an Indian 

encampment, 55 

Than come again to a wedding to which he 

had not been invited. 



Meanwhile the bridegroom went forth and 

stood with the bride at the doorway, 
Breathing the perfumed air of that warm and 

beautiful morning. 
Touched with autumnal tints, but lonely 

and sad in the sunshine, 
Lay extended before them the land of toil 

and privation ; 60 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 147 

There were the graves of the dead, and the 

barren waste of the sea-shore, 
There the familiar fields, the groves of pine, 

and the meadows ; 
But to their eyes transfigured, it seemed as 

the Garden of Eden, 
Filled with the presence of God, whose voice 

was the sound of the ocean. 



Soon was their vision disturbed by the 

noise and stir of departure, 65 

Friends coming forth from the house, and 
impatient of longer delaying, 

Each with his plan for the day, and the work 
that was left uncompleted. 



148 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

Then from a stall near at hand, amid ex- 
clamations of wonder, 
Alden the thoughtful, .the careful, so happy, 

so proud of Priscilla, 
Brought out his snow-white steer, oheying 

the hand of its master, 70 

Led by a cord that was tied to an iron ring 

in its nostrils, 
Covered with crimson cloth, and a cushion 

placed for a saddle. 
She should not walk he said, through the 

dust and heat of the noonday ; 
Nay, she should ride like a queen, not plod 

along like a peasant. 
Somewhat alarmed at first, but reassured by 

the others, 75 



THE COURTSHir OF MILES SI/INDISH. 149 



Placing her hand on the cushion, her foot in 

the hand of her husband, 
(iayly, with joyous laugh, Priscilla mounted 

her palfrey. 
"Nothing is wanting now," he said with a 

smile, "but the distaff ; 
Then you would be in truth my queen, my 

beautiful Bertha'/' 



■ 



i\ >/,"* 




^^^H£- 



■■A,:i;^i^+ 



Onward the bridal procession now moved 

to their new habitation, 80 



150 THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STAN DISH. 

Happy husband and wife, and friends con- 
versing together. 
Pleasantly murmured the brook, as they 

crossed the ford in the forest, 
Pleased with the image that passed, like a 

dream of love through its bosom, 
Tremulous, floating in air, o'er the depths of 

the azure abysses. 
Down through the golden leaves the sun was 

pouring his splendors, 85 

Gleaming on purple grapes, that, from 

branches above them suspended, 
Mingled their odorous breath with the balm 

of the pine and the fir-tree, 

Wild and sweet as the clusters that grew in 
the valley of Eshcol. 



THE COURTSHIP OF MILES ST AN DISH. 151 

Like a picture it seemed of the primitive, 
pastoral ages, 

Fresh with the youth of the world, and re- 
calling Rebecca and Isaac, 90 

Old and yet ever new, and simple and beau- 
tiful always, 

Love immortal and young in the endless suc- 
cession of lovers. 

So through the Plymouth woods passed on- 
ward the bridal procession. 





The Earliest Map of Boston Bay and the Settlements of 

the Pilgrims. Direction North is Toward 

the Right Hand. 



152 



IMPORTANT NOTICE. 

The previous page completes the title 
volume of this book. The publishers 
include the following: extra pages, not 
pertinent to the title, in order to make a 
book of sufficient thickness to conform 
with the series in which this book is 
published* 



PROMETHEUS. 



PROMETHEUS, 

OR THE POET'S FORETHOUGHT. 

Of Prometheus, how undaunted 
On Olympus' shining bastions 
His audacious foot he planted, 
Myths are told and songs are chaunted, 
Full of promptings and suggestions. 

Beautiful is the tradition 

Of that flight through heavenly portals, 
The old classic superstition 
Of the theft and the transmission 

Of the fire of the Immortals! 

First the deed of noble daring, 
Born of heavenward aspiration, 

157 



158 PROMETHEUS. 

Then the fire with mortals sharing, 
Then the vulture, — the despairing 
Cry of pain on crags of Caucasian. 

All is but a symbol painted 

Of the Poet, Prophet, Seer ; 
Only those are crowned and sainted 
Who with grief have been acquainted. 

Making nations nobler, freer. 

In their feverish exultations, 

In their triumph and their yearnings, 
In their passionate pulsations, 
In their words among the nations, 

The Promethean fire is burning. 

Shall it, then, be unavailing, 

All this toil for human culture? 
Through the clcud-rack, dark and trailing, 
Must they see above them sailing 
O'er life's barren crags the vulture? 



PROMETHEUS. 159 

Such a fate as this was Dante's, 

By defeat and exile maddened ; 
Thus were Milton and Cervantes, 
Nature's priests and Corybantes, 

By affliction touched and saddened. 

But the glories so transcendent 

That around their memories cluster, 
And, on all their steps attendant. 
Make their darkened lives resplendent 
With such gleams of inward lustre! 

All the melodies mysterious, 

Through the dreary darkness chaunted ; 
Thoughts in attitudes imperious, 
Voices soft, and deep, and serious, 

Words that whispered, songs that haunted! 



All the soul in rapt suspension, 
All the quivering, palpitating 



160 PROMETHEUS. 

Chords of life in utmost tension, 
With the fervor of invention, 
With the rapture of creating! 

Ah, Prometheus ! heaven-scaling ! 

In such hours of exultation 
Even the faintest heart, unquailing, 
Might behold the vulture sailing 

Round the cloudy crags Caucasian! 

Though to all there is not given 

Strength for such sublime endeavor, 
Thus to scale the walls of heaven, 
And to leaven with fiery leaven 
All the hearts of men for ever; 

Yet all bards, whose hearts unblighted 

Honor and believe the presage, 
Hold aloft their torches lighted, 
Gleaming through the realms benighted, 
As they onward bear the message! 



THE LADDER OF ST. AUGUSTINE. 



Saint Augustine ! well hast thou said, 
That of our vices we can frame 

A ladder, if we will but tread 

Beneath our feet each deed of shame ! 

All common things, each day's events, 
That with the hour begin and end, 

Our pleasures and our discontents, 
Are rounds by which we may ascend. 



161 



162 LADDER OF ST. AUGUSTINE. 

The low desire, the base design, 
That makes another's virtues less; 

The revel of the ruddy wine, 
And all occasions of excess ; 

The longing for ignoble things ; 

The strife for triumph more than truth; 
The hardening of the heart, that brings 

Irreverence for the dreams of youth ; 

All thoughts of ill ; all evil deeds, 

That have their roots in thoughts of ill ; 

Whatever hinders or impedes 
The action of the nobler will : — 

All these must first be trampled down 
Beneath our feet, if we would gain 

In the bright fields of fair renown 
The right of eminent domain. 



LADDER OF ST. AUGUSTINE. 163 

We have not wings, we cannot soar ; 

But we have feet to scale and climb 
By slow degrees, by more and more, 

The cloudy summits of our time. 

The mighty pyramids of stone 

That wedge-like cleave the desert airs, 

When nearer seen, and better known, 
Are but gigantic flights of stairs. 

The distant mountains, that uprear 

Their solid bastions to the skies, 
Are crossed by pathways, that appear 

As we to higher levels rise. 

The heights by great men reached and kept 
Were not attained by sudden flight, 

But they, while their companions slept, 
Were toiling upward in the night. 



164 LADDER OF ST. AUGUSTINE. 

Standing on what too long we bore 

With shoulders bent and downcast eyes, 

We may discern — unseen before — 
A pathway to higher destinies. 

Nor deem the irrevocable Past, 
As wholly wasted, wholly vain, 

If, rising on its wrecks, at last 
To something nobler we attain 



THE PHANTOM SHIP. 



In Mather's Magnalia Christi, 

Of the old colonial time, 
May be found in prose the legend 

That is here set down in rhyme. 

A ship sailed from New Haven, 
And the keen and frosty airs, 

That filled her sails at parting, 

Were heavy with good men's prayers. 

165 



166 THE PHANTOM SHIP. 

"O Lord ! if it be thy pleasure" — 
Thus prayed the old divine — 

"To bury our friends in the ocean, 
Take them, for they are thine !" 

But Master Lamberton muttered, 
And under his breath said he, 

"This ship is so crank and walty 
I fear our grave she will be !" 

And the ships that came from England, 
When the winter months were gone, 
Brought no tidings of this vessel 
Nor of Master Lamberton. 

This put the people to praying 

That the Lord would let them hear 

What in his greater wisdom 

He had done with friends so dear. 



THE PHANTOM SHIP. 167 

And at last their prayers were answered : — 

It was in the month of June, 
An hour before the sunset 

Of a windy afternoon, 

When, steadily steering landward, 

A ship was seen below, 
And they knew it was Lamberton, Master, 

Who sailed so long ago. 

On she came, with a cloud of canvas, 
Right against the wind that blew, 

Until the eye could distinguish 
The faces of the crew. 

Then fell her straining topmasts, 
Hanging tangled in the shrouds, 

And her sails were loosened and lifted, 
And blown away like clouds. 



168 THE PHANTOM SHIP. 

And the masts, with all their rigging, 

Fell slowly, one by one, 
And the hulk dilated and vanished, 

As a sea-mist in the sun ! 



And the people who saw this marvel 

Each said unto his friend, 
That this was the mould of their vessel, 

And thus her tragic end. 

And the pastor of the village 
Gave thanks to God in prayer, 

That, to quiet their troubled spirits, 
He had sent his Ship of Air. 



THE WARDEN OF THE CINQUE PORTS. 



A mist was driving down the British Channel, 

And through the window-panes, on floor and 

panel, 

Streamed the red autumn sun. 
The day was just begun, 

It glanced on flowing flag and rippling pennon, 

And the white sails of ships; 
And, from the frowning rampart, the black can- 
non 
Hailed it with feverish lips. 
169 



170 WARDEN OF THE CINQUE PORTS. 

Sandwich and Romney, Hastings, Hithe, and 
Dover 

Were all alert that day, 
To see the French war-steamers speeding over, 

When the fog cleared away. 

Sullen and silent, and like couchant lions, 

Their cannon, through the night, 
Holding their breath, had watched, in grim de- 
fiance, 

The sea-coast opposite. 

And now they roared at drum-beat from their 
stations 

On every citadel ; 
Each answering each, with morning salutations, 

That all was well. 



WARDEN OF THE CINQUE PORTS. 171 

And down the coast, all taking up the burden, 

Replied the distant forts, 
As if to summon from his sleep the Warden 

And Lord of the Cinque Ports. 

Him shall no sunshine from the fields of azure, 

No drum-beat from the wall, 
No morning gun from the black fort's embrasure, 

Awaken with its call ! 

No more, surveying with an eye impartial 

The long line of the coast, 
Shall the gaunt figure of the old Field Marshal 

Be seen upon his post ! 

For in the night, unseen, a single warrior, 

In sombre harness mailed, 
Dreaded of man, and surnamed the Destroyer, 

The rampart wall has scaled. 



172 WARDEN OF THE CINQUE PORTS. 

He passed into the chamber of the sleeper, 

The dark and silent room, 
And as he entered, darker grew, and deeper, 

The silence and the gloom. 

He did not pause to parley or dissemble, 

But smote the Warden hoar ; 
Ah! what a blow! that made all England tremble 

And groan from shore to shore. 

Meanwhile, without, the surly cannon waited, 

The sun rose bright o'erhead ; 
Nothing in Nature's aspect intimated 

That a great man was dead. 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 



All houses wherein men have lived and died 
Are haunted houses. Through the open doors 

The harmless phantoms on their errands glide, 
With feet that make no sound upon the floors. 

We meet them at the door-way, on the stair, 
Along the passages they come and go, 

Impalpable impressions on the air, 

A sense of something moving to and fro. 

173 



174 HAUNTED HOUSES. 

There are more guests at table than the hosts 

Invited ; the illuminated hall 
Is thronged with quiet, inoffensive ghosts, 

As silent as the pictures on the wall. 

The stranger at my fireside cannot see 

The forms I see, nor hear the sounds I hear ; 

He but perceives what is ; while unto me 
All that has been is visible and clear. 

We have no title-deeds to house or lands ; 

Owners and occupants of earlier dates 
From graves forgotten stretch their dusty hands ; 

And hold in mortmain still their old estates. 

The spirit-world around this world of sense 
Floats like an atmosphere, and everywhere 

Wafts through these earthly mists and vapors 
dense 
A vital breath of more ethereal air. 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 175 

Our little lives are kept in equipoise 
By opposite attractions and desires ; 

The struggle of the instinct that enjoys, 
And the more noble instinct that aspires. 

These perturbations, this perpetual jar 
- Of earthly wants and aspirations high, 
Come from the influence of an unseen star, 
An undiscovered planet in our sky. 

And as the moon from some dark gate of cloud 
Throws o'er the sea a floating bridge of light, 

Across whose trembling planks our fancies crowd 
Into the realm of mystery and night, — 

So from the world of spirits there descends 
A bridge of light, connecting it with this, 

O'er whose unsteady floor, that sways and bends, 
Wander our thoughts above the dark abyss. 



IN THE CHURCHYARD AT CAMBRIDGE. 



In the village churchyard she lies, 
Dust is in her beautiful eyes, 

No more she breathes, nor feels, nor stirs 
At her feet and at her head 
Lies a slave to attend the dead, 

But their dust is white as hers. 

Was she a lady of high degree, 
So much in love with the vanity 

And foolish pomp of this world of ours ? 

176 



CHURCHYARD AT CAMBRIDGE. 177 

Or was it Christian charity, 
And lowliness and humility, 

The richest and rarest of all dowers? 

Who shall tell us ? No one speaks ; 
No color shoots into those cheeks, 

Either of anger or of pride, 
At the rude question we have asked ; 
Nor will the mystery be unmasked 

By those who are sleeping at her side. 

Hereafter ? — And do you think to look 
On the terrible pages of that Book 

To find her failings, faults, and errors ? 
Ah, you will then have other cares, 
In your own short-comings and despairs, 

In your own secret sins and terrors ! 



THE EMPEROR'S BIRD'S-NEST. 



Once the Emperor Charles of Spain, 
With his swarthy, grave commanders, 

I forget in what campaign, 

Long besieged, in mud and rain, 
Some old frontier town in Flanders. 

Up and down the dreary camp, 
In great boots of Spanish leather, 

Striding with a measured tramp, 

These Hidalgos, dull and damp, 

Cursed the Frenchman, cursed the weather. 
178 



THE EMPEROR'S BIRD'S-NEST. 179 

Thus as to and fro they went, 

Over upland and through hollow, 

Giving their impatience vent, 

Perched upon the Emperor's tent, 
In her nest, they spied a swallow. 

Yes, it was a swallow's nest, 

Built of clay and hair of horses, 
Mane, or tail, or dragoon's crest, 
Found on hedge-rows east and west, 

After skirmish of the forces. 

Then an old Hidalgo said, 

As he twirled his gray mustachio, 

"Sure this swallow overhead 

Thinks the Emperor's tent a shed, 
And the Emperor but a Macho !" 

Hearing his imperial name 

Coupled with those words of malice, 



180 THE EMPEROR'S BIRD'S-NEST. 

Half in anger, half in shame, 
Forth the great campaigner came 
Slowly from his canvas palace. 

"Let no hand the bird molest," 
Said he solemnly, "nor hurt her!" 

Adding then, by way of jest, 

"Golondrina is my guest, 

'Tis the wife of some deserter !" 

Swift as bowstring speeds a shaft, 

Through the camp was spread the rumor, 

And the soldiers, as they quaffed 

Flemish beer at dinner, laughed 
At the Emperor's pleasant humor. 

So unharmed and unafraid 

Sat the swallow still and brooded, 
Till the constant cannonade 
Through the walls a breach had made, 
And the siege was thus concluded. 



THE EMPEROR'S BIRD'S-NEST. 181 

Then the army, elsewhere bent, 

Struck its tents as if disbanding, 
Only not the Emperor's tent, 
For he ordered, ere he went, 

Very curtly, "Leave it standing!" 

So it stood there all alone, 

Loosely napping, torn and tattered, 
Till the brood was fledged and flown, 
Singing o'er those walls of stone 

Which the cannon-shot had shattered. 



THE TWO ANGELS. 



Two angels, one of Life and one of Death, 
Passed o'er our village as the morning broke ; 

The dawn was on their faces, and beneath, 

The sombre houses hearsed with plumes of 
smoke. 

Their attitude and aspect were the same, 

Alike their features and their robes of white ; 
But one was crowned with amaranth, as with 
flame, 
And one with asphodels, like flakes of light. 

182 



THE TWO ANGELS. 183 

I saw them pause on their celestial way; 

Then said I, with deep fear and doubt op- 
pressed, 
"Beat not so loud, my heart, lest thou betray 

The place where thy beloved are at rest!" 

And he who wore the crown of asphodels, 
Descending at my door, began to knock, 

And my soul sank within me, as in wells 

The waters sink before an earthquake's shock. 

I recognized the nameless agony, 

The terror and the tremor and the pain, 

That oft before had filled and haunted me, 
And now returned with threefold strength 
again. 

The door I opened to my heavenly guest, 

And listened, for I thought I heard God's voice ; 



184 THE TWO ANGELS. 

And, knowing whatsoe'er he sent was best, 
Dared neither to lament nor to rejoice. 

Then with a smile, that filled the house with light, 
"My errand is not Death, but Life," he said; 

And ere I answered, passing out of sight, 
On his celestial embassy he sped. 

'T was at thy door, O friend ! and not at mine, 
The angel with the amaranthine wreath, 

Pausing, descended, and with voice divine, 

Whispered a word that had a sound like Death. 

Then fell upon the house a sudden gloom, 
A shadow on those features fair and thin ; 

And softly, from that hushed and darkened room, 
Two angels issued, where but one went in. 



THE TWO ANGELS. 185 

All is of God ! If he but wave his hand, 

The mists collect, the rain falls thick and loud, 

Till, with a smile of light on sea and land, 
Lo ! he looks back from the departing cloud. 

Angels of Life and Death alike are his; 

Without his leave they pass no threshold o'er; 
Who, then, would wish or dare, believing this, 

Against his messengers to shut the door? 



DAYLIGHT AND MOONLIGHT. 



In broad daylight, and at noon, 
Yesterday I saw the moon 
Sailing high, but faint and white, 
As a school-boy's paper kite. 

In broad daylight, yesterday, 
I read a Poet's mystic lay; 
And it seemed to me at most 
As a phantom, or a ghost. 
186 



DAYLIGHT AND MOONLIGHT. 187 

But at length the feverish day 
Like a passion died away, 
And the night, serene and still, 
Fell on village, vale, and hill. 

Then the moon, in all her pride, 
Like a spirit glorified, 
Filled and overflowed the night 
With revelations of her light. 

And the Poet's song again 
Passed like music through my brain; 
Night interpreted to me 
All its grace and mystery. 



THE JEWISH CEMETERY AT NEWPORT. 



How strange it seems ! These Hebrews in their 
graves, 

Close by the street of this fair seaport town, 
Silent beside the never-silent waves, 

At rest in all this moving up and down ! 



The trees are white with dust, that o'er their sleep 
Wave their broad curtains in the south wind's 
breath, 
While underneath such leafy tents they keep 
The long, mysterious Exodus of Death. 

188 



JEWISH CEMETERY AT NEWPORT. 189 

And these sepulchral stones, so old and brown, 
That pave with level flags their burial-place, 

Seem like the tablets of the Law, thrown down 
And broken by Moses at the mountain's base. 

The very names recorded here are strange, 
Of foreign accent, and of different climes; 

Alvares and Rivera interchange 

With Abraham and Jacob of old times. 

"Blessed be God ! for he created Death !" 

The mourners said, "and Death is rest and 
peace" ; 

Then added, in the certainty of faith, 

"And giveth Life that never more shall cease." 

Closed are the portals of their Synagogue, 
No Psalms of David now the silence break. 



190 JEWISH CEMETERY AT NEWPORT. 

No Rabbi reads the ancient Decalogue 
In the grand dialect the Prophets spake. 

Gone are the living, but the dead remain, 
And not neglected; for a hand unseen, 

Scattering its bounty, like a summer rain, 

Still keeps their graves and their remembrance 
green. 

How came they here? What burst of Christian 
hate, 

What persecution, merciless and blind, 
Drove o'er the sea — that desert desolate — 

These Ishmaels and Hagars of mankind ? 

They lived in narrow streets and lanes obscure, 
Ghetto and Judenstrass, in mirk and mire ; 

Taught in the school of patience to endure 
The life of anguish and the death of fire. 



JEWISH CEMETERY AT NEWPORT. 191 

All their lives long, with the unleavened bread 
And bitter herbs of exile and its fears, 

The wasting famine of the heart they fed, 

And slaked its thirst with marah of their tears. 

Anathema maranatha ! was the cry 

That rang from town to town, from street to 
street ; 
At every gate the accursed Mordecai 

Was mocked and jeered, and spurned by Chris- 
tian feet. 

Pride and humiliation hand in hand 

Walked with them through the world where'er 
they went; 
Trampled and beaten were they as the sand, 

And yet unshaken as the continent. 

For in the background figures vague and vast 
Of patriarchs and of prophets rose sublime, 



192 JEWISH CEMETERY AT NEWPORT. 

And all the great traditions of the Past 
They saw reflected in the coming time. 

And thus forever with reverted look 

The mystic volume of the world they read, 

Spelling it backward, like a Hebrew book, 
Till life became a Legend of the Dead. 

But ah ! what once has been shall be no more ! 

The groaning earth in travail and in pain 
Brings forth its races, but does not restore, 

And the dead nations never rise again. 



OLIVER BASSELIN. 



In the Valley of the Vire 

Still is seen an ancient mill, 
With its gables quaint and queer, 
And beneath the window-sill, 
On the stone, 
These words alone : 
"Oliver Basselin lived here." 

Far above it, on the steep, 

Ruined stands the old Chateau; 

Nothing but the donjon-keep 
Left for shelter or for show. 
193 



194 OLIVER BASSELIN. 

Its vacant eyes 
Stare at the skies, 
Stare at the valley green and deep. 

Once a convent, old and brown, 

Looked, but ah ! it looks no more, 
From the neighboring hillside down 
On the rushing and the roar 
Of the stream 
Whose sunny gleam 
Cheers the little Norman town. 

In that darksome mill of stone, 
To the water's dash and din, 
Careless, humble, and unknown, 
Sang the poet Basselin 
Songs that fill 
That ancient mill 
With a splendor of its own. 



OLIVER BASSELIN. 195 

Never feeling of unrest 

Broke the pleasant dream he dreamed ; 
Only made to be his nest, 
All the lovely valley seemed ; 
No desire 
Of soaring higher 
Stirred or fluttered in his breast. 

True, his songs were not divine ; 

Were not songs of that high art, 
Which, as winds do in the pine, 
Find an answer in each heart; 
But the mirth 
Of this green earth 
Laughed and reveled in his line. 

From the alehouse and the inn, 

Opening on the narrow street, 
Came the loud, convivial Hin, 

Singing and applause of feet, 



196 OLIVER BASSELIN. 

The laughing lays 
That in those days 
Sang the poet'Basselin. 

In the castle, cased in steel, 

Knights, who fought at Agincourt, 
Watched and waited, spur on heel ; 
But the poet sang for sport 
Songs that rang 
Another clang, 
Songs that lowlier hearts could feel. 

In the convent, clad in gray, 
Sat the monks in lonely cells, 
Paced the cloisters, knelt to pray, 
And the poet heard their bells ; 
But his rhymes 
Found other chimes, 
Nearer to the earth than they. 



OLIVER BASSELIN. 197 

Gone are all the barons bold, 

Gone are all the knights and squires, 
Gone the abbot stern and cold, 
And the brotherhood of friars ; 
Not a name 
Remains to fame, 
From those mouldering days of old ! 

But the poet's memory here 

Of the landscape makes a part ; 
Like the river, swift and clear, 

Flows his song through many a heart ; 
Haunting still 
That ancient mill, 
In the Valley of the Vire. 



VICTOR GALBRAITH. 



Under the walls of Monterey 

At daybreak the bugles began to play, 

Victor Galbraith ! 
In the midst of the morning damp and gray, 
These were the words they seemed to say : 

"Come forth to thy death, 

Victor Galbraith!" 

Forth he came, with a martial tread ; 
Firm was his step, erect his head ; 
Victor Galbraith, 
198 



VICTOR GALBRAITH. 199 

He who so well the bugle played, 
Could not mistake the words it said : 

"Come forth to thy death, 

Victor Galbraith!" 

He looked at the earth, he looked at the sky, 
He looked at the files of musketry, 

Victor Galbraith ! 
And he said, with a steady voice and eye, 
"Take good aim; I am ready to die!" 

Thus challenges death 

Victor Galbraith. 

Twelve fiery tongues flashed straight and red, 
Six leaden balls on their errand sped ; 

Victor Galbraith 
Falls to the ground, but he is not dead ; 
His name was not stamped on those balls, of lead, 

And they only scath 

Victor Galbraith. 



200 VICTOR GALBRAITH. 

Three balls are in his breast and brain, 
But he rises out of the dust again, 

Victor Galbraith ! 
The water he drinks has a bloody stain; 
"O kill me, and put me out of my pain !" 

In his agony prayeth 

Victor Galbraith. 

Forth dart once more those tongues of flame, 
And the bugler has died a death of shame, 

Victor Galbraith ! 
His soul has gone back to whence it came, 
And no one answers to the name, 

When the Sergeant saith, 

"Victor Galbraith !" 

Under the walls of Monterey 
By night a bugle is heard to play, 
Victor Galbraith ! 



VICTOR GALBRAITH. £01 

Through the mist of the valley damp and gray 
The sentinels hear the sound, and say, 

"That is the wraith 

Of Victor Galbraith 1" 



MY LOST YOUTH. 



Often I think of the beautiful town 

That is seated by the sea ; 
Often in thought go up and down 
The pleasant streets of that dear old town, 
And my youth comes back to me. 
And a verse of a Lapland song 
Is haunting my memory still : 
"A boy's will is the wind's will, 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long 
thoughts." 

202 



MY LOST YOUTH. 203 

I can see the shadowy lines of its trees, 

And catch, in sudden gleams, 
The sheen of the far-surrounding seas, 
And islands that were the Hesperides 
Of all my boyish dreams. 

And the burden of that old song, 
It murmurs and whispers still : 
"A boy's will is the wind's will, 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long 
thoughts." 

I remember the black wharves and the slips, 

And the sea-tides tossing free; 
And Spanish sailors with bearded lips, 
And the beauty and mystery of the ships, 
And the magic of the sea. 

And the voice of that wayward song 
Is singing and saying still : 
"A boy's will is the wind's will. 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long 
thoughts." 



204 MY LOST YOUTH. 

I remember the bulwarks by the shore, 

And the fort upon the hill ; 
The sun-rise gun, with its hollow roar, 
The drum-beat, repeated o'er and o'er, 
And the bugle wild and shrill. 
And the music of that old song 
Throbs in my memory still : 
"A boy's will is the wind's will, 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long 
thoughts." 

I remember the sea-fight far away, 
How it thundered o'er the tide ! 
And the dead captains, as they lay 
In their graves, o'erlooking the tranquil bay, 
Where they in battle died. 

And the sound of that mournful song 
Goes through me with a thrill : 
"A boy's will is the wind's will, 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long 
thoughts." 



MY LOST YOUTH. 205 

I can see the breezy dome of groves, 

The shadows of Deering's Woods ; 
And the friendships old and the early loves 
Come back with a sabbath sound, as of doves 
In quiet neighborhoods. 

And the verse of that sweet old song, 
It flutters and murmurs still : 
"A boy's will is the wind's will, 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long 
thoughts." 

I remember the gleams and glooms that dart 

Across the schoolboy's brain ; 
The song and the silence in the heart, 
That in part are prophecies, and in part 
Are longings wild and vain. 

And the voice of that fitful song 
Sings on, and is never still : 
"A boy's will is the wind's will, 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long 
thoughts." 



206 MY LOST YOUTH. 

There are things of which I may not speak ; 

There are dreams that cannot die; 
There are thoughts that make the strong heart 

weak, 
And bring a pallor into the cheek, 
And a mist before the eye. 

And the words of that fatal song 
Come over me like a chill : 
"A boy's will is the wind's will, 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long 
thoughts." 

Strange to me now are the forms I meet 

When I visit the dear old town ; 
But the native air is pure and sweet, 
And the trees that o'ershadow each well-known 
street, 
As they balance up and down, 
Are singing the beautiful song, 
Are sighing and whispering still : 



MY LOST YOUTH. 207 

"A boy's will is the wind's will, 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long 
thoughts." 

And Deering's Woods are fresh and fair, 

And with joy that is almost pain 
My heart goes back to wander there, 
And among the dreams of the da~s that were, 
I find my lost youth again. 

And the strange and beautiful song, 
The groves are repeating it still : 
"A boy's will is the wind's will, 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long 
thoughts." 



THE ROPEWALK. 



In that building, long and low, 
With its windows all a-row, 

Like the port-holes of a hulk, 
Human spiders spin and spin, 
Backward down their threads so thin 

Dropping, each a hempen bulk. 

At the end, an open door; 
Squares of sunshine on the floor 

Light the long and dusky lane ; 
And the whirring of a wheel, 
Dull and drowsy, makes me feel 

All its spokes are in my brain. 
208 



THE ROPEWALK. 209 

As the spinners to the end 
Downward go and reascend, 

Gleam the long threads in the sun ; 
While within this brain of mine 
Cobwebs brighter and more fine 

By the busy wheel are spun. 

Two fair maidens in a swing, 
Like white doves upon the wing, 

First before my vision pass ; 
Laughing, as their gentle hands 
Closely clasp the twisted strands, 

At their shadow on the grass. 

Then a booth of mountebanks, 
With its smell of tan and planks, 

And a girl poised high in air 
On a cord, in spangled dress, 
With a faded loveliness, 

And a weary look of care. 



210 THE ROPEWALK. 

Then a homestead among farms, 
And a woman with bare arms 

Drawing water from a well ; 
As the bucket mounts apace, 
With it mounts her own fair face, 

As at some magician's spell. 

Then an old man in a tower, 
Ringing loud the noontide hour, 

While the rope coils round and round 
Like a serpent at his feet, 
And again, in swift retreat, 

Nearly lifts him from the ground. 

Then within a prison-yard, 
Faces fixed, and stern, and hard, 

Laughter and indecent mirth ; 
Ah ! it is the gallows-tree ! 
Breath of Christian charity, 

Blow v and sweep it from the earth ! 



THE ROPEWALK. 211 

Then a school-boy, with his kite 
Gleaming in a sky of light, 

And an eager, upward look ; 
Steeds pursued through lane and field ; 
Fowlers with their snares concealed ; 

And an angler by a brook. 

Ships rejoicing in the breeze, 
Wrecks that float o'er unknown seas, 

Anchors dragged through faithless sand; 
Sea-fog drifting overhead, 
And, with lessening line and lead, 

Sailors feeling for the land. 

All these scenes do I behold, 
These, and many left untold, 

In that building long and low; 
While the wheel goes round and round, 
With a drowsy, dreamy sound, 

And the spinners backward go. 



THE GOLDEN MILE-STONE. 



Leafless are the trees ; their purple branches 
Spread themselves abroad, like reefs of coral, 

Rising silent 
In the Red Sea of the Winter sunset. 

From the hundred chimneys of the village, 
Like the Afreet in the Arabian story, 

Smoky columns 
Tower aloft into the air of amber. 

212 



THE GOLDEN MILE-STONE. 213 

At the window winks the flickering fire-light ; 
Here and there the lamps of evening glimmer, 

Social watch-fifes 
Answering one another through the darkness* 

On the hearth the lighted logs are glowing, 

And like Ariel in the cloven pine-tree 

For its freedom 
Groans and sighs the air imprisoned in them. 

By tM fireside there are old men seated, 
Seeing ruined cities in the ashes, 

Asking sadly 
Of the Fast what it can ne'er restore them. 

By the fireside there are youthful dreamers, 
Building castles fair, with stately stairways, 
Asking blindly 

Of the Future what it cannot give them. 



214 THE GOLDEN MILE-STONE. 

By the fireside tragedies are acted 

In whose scenes appear two actors only, 

Wife and husband, 
And above them God the sole spectator. 

By the fireside there are peace and comfort, 
Wives and children, with fair, thoughtful faces, 

Waiting, watching 
For a well-known footstep in the passage. 

Each man's chimney is his Golden Mile-stone; 
Is the central point, from which he measures 

Every distance 
Through the gateways of the world around him. 

In his farthest wanderings still he sees it ; 
Hears the talking flame, the answering night- 
wind, 
As he heard them 
When he sat with those who were, but are not. 



THE GOLDEN MILE-STONE. 215 

Happy he whom neither wealth nor fashion, 
Nor the march of the encroaching city, 

Drives an exile 
From the hearth of his ancestral homestead. 

We may build more splendid habitations, 

Fill our rooms with paintings and with sculptures, 

But we cannot 
Buy with gold the old associations ! 



CATAWBA WINE. 



This song of mine 
Is a Song of the Vine, 

To be sung by the glowing embers 
Of wayside inns, 
When the rain begins 

To darken the drear Novembers. 

It is not a song 

Of the Scuppernong, 
From warm Carolinian valleys, 

Nor the Isabel 

And the Muscadel 
That bask in our garden alleys. 

216 



CATAWBA WINE. 217 

Nor the red Mustang, 

Whose clusters hang 
O'er the waves of the Colorado, 

And the fiery flood 

Of whose purple blood 
Has a dash of Spanish bravado. 

For richest and best 

L> the wine of the West, 
That grows by the Beautiful River; 

Whose sweet perfume 

Fills all the room 
With a benison on the giver. 

And as hollow trees 

Are the haunts of bees, 
Forever going and coming; 

So this crystal hive 

Is all alive 
With a swarming and buzzing and humming. 



218 CATAWBA WINE. 

Very good in its way 

Is the Verzenay, 
Or the Sillery soft and creamy; 

But Catawba wine 

Has a taste more divine, 
More dulcet, delicious, and dreamy. 

There grows no vine 

By the haunted Rhine, 
By Danube or Guadalquivir, 

Nor on island or cape, 

That bears such a grape 
As grows by the Beautiful River. 

Drugged is their juice 

For foreign use, 
When shipped o'er the reeling Atlantic, 

To rack our brains 

With the fever pains, 
That have driven the Old World frantic. 



CATAWBA WINE. 219 

To the sewers and sinks 

With all such drinks, 
And after them tumble the mixer; 

For a poison malign 

Is such Borgia wine, 
Or at best but a Devil's Elixir. 

While pure as a spring 

Is the wine I sing, 
And to praise it, one needs but name it ; 

For Catawba wine 

Has need of no sign, 
No tavern-bush to proclaim it. 

And this Song of the Vine, 

This greeting of mine, 
The winds and the birds shall deliver 

To the Queen of the West, 

In her garlands dressed, 
On the banks of the Beautiful River. 



SANTA FILOMENA. 



Whene'er a noble deed is wrought, 
Whene'er is spoken a noble thought, 

Our hearts, in glad surprise, 

To higher levels rise. 

The tidal wave of deeper souls 
Into our inmost being rolls, 
And lifts us unawares 
Out of all meaner cares. 

Honor to those whose words or deeds 
Thus help us in our daily needs, 
And by their overflow 
Raise us from what is low ! 
220 



SANTA FILOMENA. 221 

Thus thought I, as by night I read 

Of the great army of the dead, 

The trenches cold and damp, 
The starved and frozen camp,- — 

The wounded from the battTe-plain, 
In dreary hospitals of pain, 

The cheerless corridors, 

The cold and stony floors. 

Lo ! in that house of misery 

A lady with a lamp I see 

Pass through the glimmering gloom, 
And flit from room to room. 



And slow, as in a dream of bliss, 
The speechless sufferer turns to kiss 

Her shadow, as it fall's 

Upon the darkening walls. 



222 SANTA FILOMENA. 

As if a door in heaven should be 
Opened and then closed suddenly, 
The vision came and went, 
The light shone and was spent. 

On England's annals, through the long 
Hereafter of her speech and song, 
That light its rays shall cast 
From portals of the past. 

A Lady with a Lamp shall stand 
In the great history of the land, 

A noble type of good, 

Heroic womanhood. 

Nor even shall be wanting here 
The palm, the lily, and the spear, 

The symbols that of yore 

Saint Filomena bore. 



DAYBREAK. 



A wind came up out of the sea, 

And said, "0 mists, make room for me. 

It hailed the ships, and cried, "Sail on, 
Ye mariners, the night is gone." 

And hurried landward far away, 
Crying, "Awake ! it is the day." 

It said unto the forest, "Shout! 
Hang all your leafy banners out !" 

223 



224 DAYBREAK. 

It touched the wood-bird's foiaed wing, 
And said, "O bird, awake and sing." 

And o'er the farms, "O chanticleer, 
Your clarion blow; the day is near." 

It whispered to the fields of corn, 
"Bow down, and hail the coming morn. 

It shouted through the belfry-tower, 
"Awake, O bell ! proclaim the hour." 

It crossed the churchyard with a sigh, 
And said, "Not yet! in quiet lie."' \ 



Dee 26 1909 



